Seeing Red Birds

     Momma knew I loved Cardinals

and she was often texting or emailing me pictures of them.  

She texted this one to me 2 days before she and Carl were killed.  

A sweet reminder from my mom…and from God’s Word.

     Several months after Momma and Carl died, one of my daughters and I flew to Florida to meet one of my brothers and his wife to go through and pack up the house – to get the things our side of the family wanted and to start getting the house ready to sell.

(You should have seen the look on the UPS guys face when he stepped through the door and saw all 28 boxes.  He actually turned around and groaned…until I told him the story of why we were doing this.  He was shocked and he told us that he had driven by the accident that night, but didn’t know it was them. He delivered pkgs to their house all the time…and that day he went way beyond the line of duty to help us get the boxes labeled and shipped.  What a blessing!) 

     One day while we were all at the house sorting, sifting…& boxing things up…& sorting and sifting some more…the mailman pulled up and got out to talk to us (he had been in tears when the local news interviewed him right after the accident).  During our short time standing there talking, I kept hearing a bird singing his little heart out.

     Finally I spotted him, just above me in the small tree in my mom’s front yard – a beautiful, bright red cardinal – and I heard another one answering him off in the distance (his wife I’m assuming ;).  I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.  So happy and chipper, singing and singing.

     Packing up my mom’s house was pretty overwhelming in so many ways.  We were still dealing with the tragic loss, & now,  just a few months later, we were having to decided “what do we take and what to leave behind.”  Not a pleasant task.  (I still have days when a shock goes through my mind & body as I think of something that I wish I had taken…probably “normal,” but unsettling, nonetheless.)

     So taking that short break in my mom’s front yard, then hearing the cheery singing of the Cardinal, gave my heart a real lift.  I felt like my mom was saying to me, “You’re doing good, Mitzi, and I’m really proud of you!”  Cheering me on from Heaven.  (Now before you think I’m weird or something, I didn’t actually hear a voice!  It was just a thought that came to my mind, since my mom knew how much I loved those sweet red birds ;).

     Having a difficult time?  Can’t see through the darkness?  Heart so heavy you don’t know how you can make it another day?  Look UP!!  Look to Jesus…cling to His hand and to His promises – He will carry you through.

     I absolutely LOVE the Psalms.  I love to read them, pray them, and many times I cry through them.  So many times David’s prayers become my prayers; his cries, my cries.  I’m so thankful for the book of Psalms.  David sending out words of hope when we think there is no hope.  Here is one small verse I will share with you today…but there are oh so many more.

Thou which hast showed me great and sore troubles,

shalt quicken me again,

and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.  

Psalm 71:20