It is a beautiful morning on the Virginia peninsula. (You who are in air conditioning: turn it off and open some windows!!)

Early this morning, it actually felt chilly out on the screened porch, when I took my mug of coffee, my prayer book and Bible out for morning prayer. These days I'm using a form of morning prayer from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, appreciating the daily lectionary in ELW because it is keyed to the Sunday morning readings. As I was reading through one of the daily Scripture texts, I was distracted by movement at the bird bath. There were two birds I hadn't seen before. (That doesn't mean others of the species haven't been visiting our bird bath for years! It's a variation on the old question: How many burning bushes did Moses walk past before he finally noticed one??)

Anyway, I memorized the birds' markings and watched them until they flew away. Then I went inside to get my National Audubon Society bird book, and there they were: the Carolina Chickadee. What a gift!

Then, later in the ELW Morning Prayer service, a line from the prayer that simply happened to come up today because it was "its turn" for me to read it, in rotation:

Mighty God of mercy, we thank you for the resurrection dawn, bringing the glory of our risen Lord who makes every day new.
Especially we thank you --
for the sustaining goodness of your creation ...

Exactly what I had been praying earlier, while celebrating the Carolina Chickadees!

The connections are there, the presence of God is there, the reasons for thanksgiving are abundant -- when only our eyes and ears are open to notice them.