A DOVE AND A PRAYER

THE PHOTO FOR TODAY, OUR DOVE, IS WAY DOWN AT THE BOTTOM! HELP, SUNNIE! I WANTED IT NEXT TO THE POST, AND I CAN'T FIND A WAY TO GET BACK TO THE "GADGETS." Sincere thanks to ALL of you who wrote back to my 1st post right away! How fun. Thanks especially, to Sunnie, our neighbor who helped me get this started. She's my go-to person to stay on this learning curve. I neglected to metion how much we love BIRDS! LeRoi keeps our two feeders in the backyard filled, right outside our big dining room window, and boy, do we love those birds. Want a list? Here it is: sparrow, house finch, gold finch, pine siskin, Oregon junko (also gray version or something like that), dove, starling, grackle, chukkar (YES, we're sure! but I have to confess, it was in neighbors' yard; we could see it from our window, too.), robin, barn swallow (oh, the babies!), red wing blackbird, indigo bunting, etc. Herons fly over once in awhile, but they don't count for our yard. Speaking of birds: HERE IS A PHOTO OF A DOVE WE "SAVED"! As we sat enjoying the birds recently, a dove decided to leap from the ground (where they eat the finch leftovers), and dive right at us! SMACK! He went face first into the window and was propelled head down into the snow! I immediately went out to lift him so he wouldn't smother. There were a few red blood spots in the snow by his head, and he was totally knocked out. Oh, I was so sad as I lifted him, cuddled, petted him and baby talked to him. There was blood all around his beak.I placed him on an outside pillow, and he just sank into the comfort with no response. Soon, he began lifting his head and laboring to breathe, but his eyes remained closed. I went out several times in the next couple hours, to encourage him to wake up ("Stay with us, little buddy! Open your eyes now"). Ah, he occasionally opened his eyes, as I watched from the patio door and prayed my heart out! "God, you love the birds; PLEASE HEAL THIS ONE! PLEASE, PLEASE HEAL HIM!") The reason I'm telling you about this prayer is that I don't usually pray so fervently. I meekly ask the Lord, "If it's your will, and it's for everybody's good, I know you can heal. But I only want your will to be done in any case." Well, after my dove prayer, I learned a lesson. God WILL do what is best, and I have the access to Him thru our Savior Jesus Christ to plead for others. He KNOWS I wouldn't want anything if it wouldn't be His will. From a recent study of prayer in the Bible, I learned anew and very strongly that He wants us to intercede for others. I knew that, of course, but I have a new appreciation for the ability to plead with him, just as I would have with my human father! So that's my sermon for the day, and I know you are wondering what happened to the dove. Well, we had to leave for 2-3 hours, and when we returned, he had got off the pillow and was against the wall, standing up. LeRoi and I both gave him food and water, which he didn't seem to want; but it didn't scare him at first. Finally, he jumped up to a footstool, where I went out to see him again-- ZOOMFLUTTER!!! Right off to our fence, where he was immediately met by another dove out of nowhere! Yep, they both perched there awhile and soon flew off together. We think he was back the next day, as he came right over to the patio to eat some of the food we had scattered there. Thank you, Lord! P.S. From my writer/editor days, I am very aware of typos and, especially, grammatical errors. Well! On my title above, there is no apostrophe in "Grammy's" Blessings! Horrors! They won't put it there even if I type it!