It's the little things...

This is the month when crocus adorn gardens; except in ours, which is the territory of local squirrels! Just one purple crocus has escaped their foraging. It stands in solitary splendour in the middle of the lawn, but it proclaims, with the authority of a 100 blooms, if winter comes then spring is not far behind.

We are apt to concern ourselves with big events: special holidays, outstanding sights and sounds, but we miss out if we do not also identify the everyday pleasures each today does hold. A friend of mine had a bad bout of flu, and had to stay in bed. I received this delightful text from her.

"You know you are loved when your daughter sends you Farleys Rusks, by Amazon, to help you get over the flu."

I read of a third century saint, Felix of Nola, who was running from his enemies. He hid in a small cave. A busy spider spun a web over the entrance and when his pursuers saw this, they assumed that no one had gone inside because the web was still imtact. When Felix came out, he said,

"Where God is, a spiders web is a wall, and where God is not, a wall is a spiders web."

Certainly, if the following quotation had been available for Saint Felix, he would have agreed...

The art of being happy does lie in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

Life is not easy, but somewhere, somehow, everyday, there will be a blessing; like the solitary crocus, if you look for it. The Bible affirms, "This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." Each day is a proof that God keeps His word, He said, at the beginning of time, "As Long as the earth remaineth, there will be day and night."

Each day we can take note of the fact that God loves us, so much that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but will have everlasting life. This is not just a hope - it is a glorious fact!

Enjoy the week ahead.