To Buckeyes With Love
After staying with us for three days, our grandson knew his parents were returning soon from their weekend away. By Sunday afternoon he found himself filled with a fair amount of energy, probably anticipating his parent’s arrival. So we headed outside to pass some time by climbing, sliding, and swinging, and to get the wiggles out.
As we stepped from the sidewalk into the park, we spotted numerous round, chocolatey brown objects littering the grassy ground beneath the two tall trees on our left.
With bright eyes, Oliver shouted, “Grandma, look at all the buckeyes!”
And indeed, a bumper crop had fallen. I told him that every fall, for years, I walked by these trees, and picked up a few delightful seeds to put in a bowl or on a shelf. It was like picking up colorful leaves or dried wildflowers, a true sign of fall. Finding them felt like we were happening upon abundant treasure.
With much excitement, he took charge, “Let’s take some home!”
And with that, we started filling our pockets. After we could hold no more, I realized that I had an extra doggy bag so we unloaded the buckeyes from our pockets into the bag while adding just a few more. Tucking it under my arm, we headed onto the playground.
I felt so satisfied as Oliver played. Buckeyes are a part of my fall routine, and connecting with them unexpectedly made me feel happy. I also found myself recalling a story that is brought to mind every September when the buckeye trees begin to drop their seeds.
In the fall of the year after our son, Joel, graduated from college, his younger sister was starting her sophomore year at the same college. This year she would be on campus without her big brother. Our creative son wondered how he could let her know he would be thinking of her. After a bit of thought, he found a great idea. Those very same buckeye trees became his answer where he found an abundant crop lying on the ground.
On the day we helped her move on campus, Joel secretly handed a single buckeye to his friends and asked them to give it to Hannah when they saw her. When she arrived on campus, she was surprised to find random people who just walked up to her, placed a buckeye into her hand, and said, “Your brother wants you to know that he loves you.” I don’t know how many buckeyes she gathered during those early days, but I do know she was reminded of her brother’s love, demonstrated in such a creative way. And she got to say hi to some of his friends which must have felt like a bonus as she started her second year.
Demonstrations of love, creatively presented, remind me of the ways God offers us gifts that we don’t see coming. These offerings are everywhere even when we don’t seem to have eyes to see them as gifts. Kind words of encouragement. Unexpected smiles. Invitations to join in. A phone call. The random “just because” gifts. Sincere hugs from a loved one. A handwritten thank-you note. A Bible verse that brings tears to your eyes. An invitation to join a friend for coffee. A paragraph in a book that says exactly what you needed to read on that day. Looking up and seeing the sun tucked behind a cloud, its luminescence shining from behind the edges. The red maple leaf is so perfectly formed! A deer, with huge brown eyes, watches from the woods as you walk by. The feel on your face when a breeze flits by. A friend texts: Look at the moon! It is so bright! A loved one holds your hand as you walk together. A party is thrown for you by those who love you. The words, “We’ve missed you!” The sunrise and the sunset. (Can you even???)
I could go on and on. You could add many more…unexpected gifts from the heart of God that reassure us: he sees, knows, and loves us.
In James 1:17 it says, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. I wonder if we have trouble recognizing the moments as good and perfect gifts.
Laura Boggess, in Playdates with God, writes about a time when she was sitting down to her morning devotions when she noticed that a squirrel was stuffing his cheeks with sunflower seeds in her newly filled bird feeder. She loved her little songbirds and didn’t want that squirrel to gobble all their food. But she was prepared! She found herself going outside and picking up the water Uzi that she had placed under her sill for this exact purpose. As she took aim and fired, the shocked squirrel jumped three feet up and then down and ran across the yard to hide in the bushes. But he soon reappeared and she shot him again and again, delighting in the game he was playing with her.
She writes: “Every time that squirrel jumps crazily into the air, I laugh so hard I can hardly get up off the floor - feeling the presence of God powerfully . . . laughing right along with me. Rather than letting what could have been an interruption frustrate me, I simply invite God into that moment. What a blast.”
Laura saw the squirrel and their game as a gift…a way to enjoy God…a way to feel invited into his joy, a good and perfect gift.
I love this.
From an abundant horde of buckeyes to a brother’s love to God’s presence in his unexpected gifts, we can find joy in knowing we are loved by the God who sees and who makes our lives rich with his glorious generosity.
Let’s deliberately take note today of the ways God shows his love for us, then turn, give thanks, and find a bit of the joy David experienced when he wrote in Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. And then we can realize that these surprise gifts are just a foretaste of the feast to come.