Pastor Annette's Blog
"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
![]() October 25, 2016 Beloved: He’s the size of a peanut M&M but silky soft, with legs and feet thin as toothpicks. He lost his grip on his mama’s back as she tried to escape a flower pot on my screen porch. He fell three feet to the floor. I figure that’s like 10 stories to a human, but he landed on carpet and survived. I hoped they’d stay but the mama was too spooked. She had de-stuffed a porch pillow to build her nest, burying herself below three inches of fluff and potting soil. I water the aloe every other week so she’d given birth and been nursing there no more than two weeks when I frightened her by plucking up the fluff. She poked her head up and we both screamed a little. I quickly put everything back and left her alone, but it was too late. By the next morning she and her seven pups (yep, that’s what they’re called) had evacuated, refugees from what was in fact a very sweet setup. In eighteen years I’ve seen one mouse inside the house. Simba saw it before me, dispatched it and matter-of-factly returned to his nap. Winter is coming and Simba is gone. I might as well have hung out a sign, He is so cute I imagined letting them live on my porch all winter, feeding them bread crumbs. But she neither asked my permission nor agreed to my rules. She hid in the first place and escaped when discovered, her pups’ safety her only concern. Had I left her alone, she’d mostly likely have moved her family another fifteen feet through my kitchen and into my pantry. Left alone six more weeks, my house would be colonized as each female became a mama with pups of her own.
Who knew? Simba knew, that’s who! Instinctively and matter-of-factly, that ancient orange beast took care of business like a boss for eighteen winters, and I’m not sure I ever once thanked him properly. How many times do we fail to recognize the gifts and graces of others until they leave us? I want to pay better attention. And crazy as it sounds to my own ears . . . I truly can’t believe I’m saying so . . . I might have to get a cat. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette
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I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC. It is also posted here.
Enjoy! Pastor Annette Copyright
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February 2025
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