Wow! This certainly is a day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. It is a cool 65°, turn off the air conditioner, day. The sun is literally bouncing off of the flowers this morning and making their colors seem to explode. Way to go, God!

I have a lot of birds out there this morning. I think this "cool snap" has them confused that it is fall and they are trying to pack on energy to keep warm. I need to get to Pet Foods today to grab a bag or two of sun flower seed and then go to Wildbirds Unlimited for thistle seed and some other stuff. All of that will put a hole in a hundred dollar bill but it is worth it. Besides, I dropped that much in two hours at a penny slot machine in Vegas and didn't have a thing to show for it. This will give me entertainment for weeks and will benefit God's creation too.

I also need to get back to working on my sermon for Sunday after next. Yesterday I spent most of the day putting together the funeral service that I do tomorrow, and putting together the worship service that I'm doing at the Good Samaritan Home a week from today. I have a concept in mind for the Sunday but often by the end of the day, the words just all get bottlenecked and won't flow. Unfortunately, once that happens, it sometimes takes a couple of days to restart the writing flow.

As I sit here looking out at my back yard; seeing the flowers, watching my birds and listening to their birdsong; I'm thinking this is a good day to go outside and "internalize" God. It is a good day to go out and breathe in God's creation. It is a good time to simply go out and take deep breaths and close your eyes, and feel the miracle of oxygen as it flows through your body. And then, open your eyes and look around you at the miracle of everything that God has put before you; and then give thanks for all of it. So often we only externalize God. We study, we read our Bibles, and we pray, --- all of which are external things. And, they are all things we need to do in order to maintain our relationshp with God. But once in awhile, we need to fill ourselves up with God's essence.

As always, I begin my day with prayers of gratitude today for my blessings that continually flow my way. I pray for the family of the man for whom I'm doing the funeral tomorrow. I'm lifting up a family that is on vacation out west today. They notified me that the father was hospitalized for some testing this morning and they aren't sure yet what is wrong with him. I continue to lift up my sister and brother in law as they deal with his cancer and some very difficult decisions. And, I lift up the people of my congregations. We end our service each week with the song lyrics; "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." What a great prayer to live by.

Have a blessed day.