Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The Rich Club

Last night a dear neighbor and I were talking about our fascination with birds. I'm seriously thinking about joining a Pennsylvania birding club. In the woods behind my home, I can find snowy owls, barn owls, woodpeckers, and even eagles. By my kitchen window, the northern cardinals dance about all day.

I'd love a great camera with one of those zoom lenses. I want to take photographs like my friend over at Pollywog Creek (take a look at her flower photography today!) who takes photos of the most beautiful birds.

As my neighbor and I share a moment of wonder over birds, I remark that God didn't have to make birds.

"And he didn't have to make them sing, either," she says. They seem placed here for such delight I can hardly bear it.

Then, my wise neighbor reminds me of the riches of it all. "You never have to worry about being rich," she says. "You have the riches of nature always available to you."

Yes!

I think about the birding club and the riches of friendship. I think about my wonderful neighbor and the riches of wisdom. I think about my backyard feeder and the riches of cardinals robed in deep red. I think of the riches of family, laughter, vivid verbs (don't laugh, it's for real for me), and blogging friends like Mark and Stephanie or Elaine. I think of Judy Gordon Morrow who mailed me her wonderful book of devotions last month.

Today I'm rich in snowflakes, dark coffee, and fuzzy slippers. I'm rich in icy ponds and crackling icicles that make the houses seem swallowed in great jaws. I'm rich in poetry books, old dusty journals, bibles, new novels buried inside me, and Penn State students who write so honestly I sometimes cry when I grade their papers.

I'm rich in professors who have lunch with me even though we only have 45 minutes once a week. I'm rich in neighborhood moms and dads who are raising children alongside my awesome husband and me.

I'm rich in Italian Mamas.

God has poured out all these riches all over me as if knowing Him weren't enough. He wasn't lying when He said "I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly"

(Now you try! Can you list the ten ways you are rich?)

4 comments:

Patricia W Hunter said...

Oh my...what a sweet friend you are. You, and your vivid verbs, encourage me to see the flair in every day...to adjust my lens and capture the riches in my own abundant life while appreciating those in yours. (There're no one-eyed Jacks, snowy owns, icy ponds or crackling icicles in my little world.) Thank you, beautiful friend. I count you as one of the ways I am rich.

Judy Morrow said...

Wow, Heather, what a fun and sweet surprise to be reading along and find the mention of my new book, The Listening Heart--thanks so much! This delightful post resonates with richness, and I'm grateful to count you and your blog among my personal list of riches. So thankful with you for God's amazing abundance to us on a daily basis.

John Roe said...

Heather, have you read Traherne? A few quotes from the section of the book about "delight in Creation":

"Your enjoyment of the World is never right, till you so esteem it, that everything in it is more your treasure than a King's exchequer full of Gold and Silver"

"Wine by its moisture quencheth my thirst, whether I consider it or no; but to see it flowing from His love who gave it unto man, quencheth even the thirst of the Holy Angels."

"You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and Kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world."

LivewithFlair said...

This is great, John Roe! Thank you!