a puff... ...of love

i love puffs... the beautiful whimsical fluffs that float around every fall and remind me of so many things

like the time my wonderful husband caught a tiny fluff in his hand to show me, years ago, when he still wore the title fiance, and with the proud look of one who has found a true gift, said "look honey a fluff!" and i looked at his hand and said "WHERE" while secretly blowing the tiny piece of magic out of his cupped hand, sending him to catch it again and again, i don't know how many times he caught that tiny puff for me before he realised what i was doing...

and all the time i have spent catching puffs with my daughter, who squeals in delight "a wish!!! a wish!!! i caught a wish!!!!  look mommy i caught a magic wish!"

i don't know exactly when i decided in my heart that a puff floating through the air on a fall breeze was one of the many ways God shows me that He loves me. 

but i did decide..  i suppose it was one day as i watched a beautiful huge puff float right by my face just as i was about to lose my temper over some trivial thing... i stopped to look at it and was suddenly overwhelmed with how much God loves me. 

He could have made all plants send out root suckers or drop their seeds directly on the ground, or travel in the stomachs of birds,

but He didn't

he made puffs to delight the young, and the young at heart,
to chase on a beautiful fall day with my daughter,
a tiny reminder of His love right before the long cold of winter.

and so to me a puff floating through the air became a beautiful example of Gods amazing love.
a gift for me to chase and catch, or not, and hold, or not, and find delight in, either way

a reminder to me...

that magic is real...

and can be found all around me...
 in the wild colors and crazy fluttering of the butterfly,

 in the aerial expertise of the dragonfly,

 in the moth that fills the night with wonder as it drinks from the evening scented stock,

 in the croak of the bullfrog,

 in the flight of a hummingbird,

and in the whimsical puff that floats by me as i soak the last days of fall into my heart in preparation for the cold silence of winter.

if you find yourself today trapped in the silence of winter, remember the puffs that floated by us not so long ago, they have found a home now on the cold ground many miles from where they started, and are waiting...

waiting for spring and the chance to grow anew.

they have to wait for their new life, but we don't..

ours is here already, we need only to embrace it,
and the one who gave so much more than the puff waits for us to find our life in Him
i have found it,
 eternal life and the springtime of my soul
 have you?
 if not, your spiritual spring awaits...