It's Nice to be Loved

I woke up on Palm Sunday, remembering that I'd forgotten to fill the crock pot with soup mix-ins. We were having a lunch meeting following our church service. I jumped out of bed and ran into the kitchen.

My eyes were still bleary and I hadn't put in my contacts, but as I passed the kitchen window, something caught my eye. At first, all I saw were the bits of white scattered throughout my yard. "oh MAN!" I said, wondering what dog had gotten into whose trash. And then I squinted, and... I recognized the fox.

I put in my contacts, and the "bits of white" turned out to be Styrofoam plates with Easter greetings on them. And there in the middle of my front yard, staring back at me through the window, was the fox.

He's really just an ordinary piece of yard art - perhaps not even that, as he was left by a previous home owner at a house one of my friends bought. When one of our mutual friends saw it for the first time (and second, and I think third as well), she (sarcastically) said "NICE fox..."

Well.... a few weeks ago, when the sarcastic friend was in Florida, the fox switched neighborhoods. Upon her arrival back in TN, there was Mr. Fox - in her "weed bed", as she likes to call it.

This past weekend, the middle and high school youth had a "Discipleship Now" weekend - the boys and the girls, separately studying scriptural aspects of relationships and the benefits of "waiting" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know-what-I-mean, know-what-I-mean...).

And, as tradition would have it, they find a little midnight mischief. I was blessed with the plates, some candy filled eggs and The Fox - AND, a few flowers and mulch for my "Friendship Garden" (YES!)

I smiled to myself, and realized how grateful I am to have such a wonderful church family.... mischief and all.