Ricky and Ashley overlooking the waterfall, spending time with God.
I looked up through the canopy of green and this sight caught my breath--Mary Kay this is for you! I prayed for you the moment I looked up and saw this. Mary Kay is a friend from school who shared a photograph of the sun shining through the trees in Washington on her 3-week retreat (that I am about to go on Aug. 4-24) and it was a moment that God used in a significant way to bring some things together for her, reminders of His love, faithfulness, and healing in her life. It struck a chord in me because seeing sunlight like this has been something I have loved forever. Mary Kay and I became friends right away when I got to ISF, and this last semester she was my prayer partner for retreat class, and wrote a retreat for me.
Gaby sitting on the porch of one of the few buildings in the gardens. Isn't it a beautiful structure. If I ever get to build a house on this earth, I want it to be in this simple style. I love the beams and the tile roof!
In the afternoon I walked out to see the rose garden again, and as I did I saw Austin! There he was enjoying the roses!
Stopping to smell them even! Another eucharisteo for this mom and facillitator! Someone appreciating and enjoying the beauty of God's creativity in flowers, down to how they smell!
...and ofcourse, how they look, a gorgeous double rose!
This is Diana! I wish you could know her too.
Ricky, reflected in the stillness of the pond below him. This was another eucharisteo, a young man with His God, Bible in hand, praying and being open to what God is doing.
O.k. I have lived here in Ecuador for 14 years now! I have never once seen a daffodil. (Bulbs aren't big here, although I will see Iris occasionally) But here infront of me as I rounded a corner and sitting beside a stream was a daffodil! Just one! You got it, a eucharisteo. I stopped, took the picture, and sat on a rock enjoying it for a while. Then a few hours later, Laura came up to me and gave me a card, and said good bye to me! She had to leave a little early. I opened the card, and there on the front was a painting of a daffodil! Laura is an artist, so my first thought was that she had painted it. But her card told me that this was one of her grandmother's paintings. She had just gone home to be with her family for her grandmother's funeral, so this was doubly meaningful for me that she would share this card and painting with me. But, I ran and tried to find her, so I could show her the daffodil. She had not seen it, and we actually ran into each other across the pond from where it was. She came over, saw it, and I shared the God-incidence of it all with her! She left and my awe was deep at how detailed God is in sending us gifts! Two in one day, connected to each other in a very specific way. There were many more, but these two had a visible connection as well. Kind of crazy and wonderful! "Don't be anxious about your life, what you will eat or wear, etc. because God clothes the lilies (and daffodils and every other flower) of the field and Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as they are!" Matt. 6
So, I took a picture of the card that dear Grandma Pat Jennings painted back in the Carolinas, and this lonely, stunning, surprising daffodil in Quito's botanical gardens. A tangible reminder of what is always always true, God is good, and cares, and knows the hairs on my head and yours! Why do we worry!
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