November 23rd
Read: Philippians 4:19; Psalm 132:14-15; Psalm 100; Psalm 95:1-3
LITTLE MOTHER
Little Mother, a wild Mallard duck, was a wise parent. She had nested carefully among the plantain lilies at the next-door cottage. There were seven ducklings when she proudly walked them to the lake for the first time to give them their swimming lesson.
What fun it was to watch them bob like tiny corks and then suddenly dive in the shallow water and dart along the bottom. How carefully she watched over them, keeping other ducks away by swimming between them and her little ones and snapping at the intruders in awkward attack if they persisted.
All of us watched them with great enjoyment. As we fed our own ducks their cracked corn on the beach daily, Little Mother began to join them with her brood or even to anticipate the feeding. Often it was my husband who carried the corn to the beach as he left for work.
One day he lay in the hammock slung between two trees near the beach while I sat in a lawn chair reading. He quietly interrupted my reading with, “Jean, look here.” Coming up from the water was Little Mother followed by her brood. She walked to within three feet of the hammock and gathered her ducklings around her. She murmured something in Duck to her babies and then turned back to the lake. The ducklings looked my husband over, then turned and followed her back to the lake.
I believe that she was introducing her family to the one who provided the corn which they enjoyed so much. We considered it a “thank you” and were delighted that her family was quite comfortable around us all summer long. Little Mother came into our gate with Thanksgiving.
THANKSGIVING
When God’s children come to Him
With grateful songs of praise,
He responds with boundless love
To fill our earthbound days
With all good things we need to live.
He never ceases to amaze!
He gives us family, friends, and home,
Provides our daily bread.
He shows us beauty all around
So spirit might be fed.
He even sent His Son to die
That we might live instead!
Oh, as Thanksgiving comes again,
As all our prayers ascend,
May we be thankful first for Him,
Our Savior and our friend.
Then may our thanks result in love
And acts with perfect trend.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank You for another year of full blessings from You.