God's Gifts

"I saw a hummingbird awhile ago," my husband casually remarked as we sat at breakfast on our porch.

"You did?" I exclaimed.  "Why didn't you tell me?"  We had just been saying in a conversation the day before that the latest issue of his favorite  magazine, Birds and Blooms, was devoted almost exclusively to hummingbirds. "And we never even see them!" I had lamented.

A few minutes later, I caught a glimpse of an unfamiliar dog darting uncertainly toward the house, but I didn't mention it until I saw it again.  When I pointed it out to Howard, he went outside.  The small dog had no collar and seemed quite young.  A little skittish at first, soon it was tentatively allowing us to pet it.  "Do you think it's lost?" I wondered.

We let the little dog, a black-and-white terrier mix, come onto the porch.  I got it some water, which he lapped up in no time.  He looked thin, so later I fed him some dry dog food left by our "grand-dog" and he gobbled it up.  Today I called the animal shelter to see if a dog by that description had been reported missing.  I left my phone number just in case, although no one had inquired.

It looks like we've got that dog that Howard always wanted!  Two surprises in one day!  In a store later that morning, I saw some sidewalk chalk and decided to give it to our granddaughters as a surprise when we picked them up after school. I set it on the wicker table on the front porch so they would see it as soon as they came in. That surprise was usurped by the bigger surprise of the dog!  They were jubilant and unbelieving when they opened the screen door and he jumped out.

"CHALK!?!" my granddaughter cried out in joy when I handed the plastic carton to her. My front patio was shortly transformed into brilliant works of art by her and her six-year-old sister.  A multi-colored rainbow, a lopsided likeness of the dog, misspelled words and designs in vivid hues covered the concrete surface.  Oh well, it was supposed to rain, so it would probably not last long, I thought.

Sure enough, it came a gully-washer while we were at mid-week church, and the patio is clean as a whistle!  No trace of chalk remains, washed away by last night's rain.  Just like the  sins of the repentant sinner, I thought, for whom the sky is brighter and the colors more vivid, like the iridescent chalk or the brilliance of hummingbirds on the wing.  What a nice surprise!