The Things That Make God Dear

I love Trader Joe's Chocolate-covered Almonds with Sea Salt. The combination of salty and sweet is heavenly. Sadly, the closest Trader Joe's is too far away for regular shopping trips, and until December when they open a store in Columbia,  I won't enjoy them often.

Last month, while visiting me for Mother's Day, my daughter Kristen surprised me with a box of the luscious confections. She remembered how much I raved about them when I visited her in Washington, DC, and found them at her favorite grocery store. She made a mental note, and when she knew she was coming home to visit, drove all the way to Alexandria to get them. Then she carefully packed them in her carry on luggage so they wouldn't melt and presented them to me for Mother's Day, much to my delight.

She did a similar thing a few years ago for my birthday. I'm a transplanted Yankee, and often long for some of the flowers I grew up with.  My olfactory memory reminisces about burying my face in lilac bushes and gluttonously consuming the scent of them.

Peonies hold a similar place in my heart (and nose). Although we can grow them here in the South, the most scent-rich ones don't seem to thrive south of the Mason Dixon. On my homestead in Rhode Island, my grandmother raised fluffy white peonies tipped with pink. Every year we knew it was truly spring when a bunch of them appeared on our dining room table.

One year Kristen placed a special order at a pricy florist for three luscious, scented peonies. She presented them to me on my birthday, and I was in heaven.

In both of these scenarios, the gifts were wonderful. What was even more special, though, was that my daughter noticed what I enjoyed and expended considerable effort to get it for me.

Oswald Chambers, in his book My Utmost for His Highest, writes, "The things that make God dear to us are not so much His great big blessings as the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us; He knows every detail about our individual lives."

When was the last time God presented a tiny love gift to you? I'm convinced He does it all the time, but we're usually too busy to notice. Like my daughter's chocolate covered almonds and sweet-scented peonies, He sends special gifts our way to remind us how well he knows us and how much he loves us.

Will you join me today in asking God to give us eyes to see that "every good and perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the Father of lights?" (James 1:17) And let's be sure to thank him.

I invite you to join in the conversation. Leave a comment below telling us about one of the tiny blessings God sent your way. I'd love to hear about it!

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