CONSIDER THE APHID
by Julie Lavender

I took a different path on my morning walk today that led me past the ditch in our back yard. A couple of ladybugs, or as my biologist husband would correctly identify them, ladybird beetles, caught my eye and I looked closer at the weeds growing near the water’s edge.

“Aphids. Lots of them.”

 GUEST BLOGGER

My guest today is Katherine Pasour, a writer friend I only knew via the cyber world, until we met in person last week at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. And what a delight that was!!! We chatted over mealtimes and at author signings and before worship time...it was such fun to meet, in person, someone I'd come to know and treasure as a friend through emails and social media. Though I love this cyber world of knowing people, there's nothing like face-to-face communication! 

Katherine, an author and wellness-advocate, writes at www.katherinepasour.com. I especially liked her blog below, and I thought it fit perfectly with my theme of glimpses of God from His amazing masterpieces. I hope you'll visit her site - you won't be disappointed! Enjoy! 

The old is gone, the new is here! 

by Katherine Passour

Do you love Spring?

I enjoy almost everything about Spring--the warmer temperatures, beautiful flowers, birds singing in joyful chorus, and the smell of fresh cut grass.

Then there are the new, green leaves...

CONSIDER THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL
by Julie Lavender

This week’s walk with God led my feet along mountain paths at Ridgecrest, North Carolina, where I attended the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. The lodge where I slept – only a few hours per night because I was pondering POV and marketing and fresh angles and such – had the moniker, ‘Mountain Laurel,’ named for the exquisitely beautiful shrub native to the Eastern United States, but not often seen in my neck of the woods in south Georgia.

Before I left the retreat center, I set out on a prayerwalk and found several mountain laurel shrubs displaying God’s glory.

CONSIDER THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY
by Julie Lavender

A springtime walk with God in the south is often graced with the fluttering of butterfly wings. God’s creativity is evident in so many of His masterpieces, but I often feel like He ‘outdid’ Himself when it comes to butterflies.

I spotted a monarch butterfly on my walk today. Black and orange with white spots along the tips of its wings, the monarch flies farther than any insect during its short life on Earth.

CONSIDER THE LUBBER GRASSHOPPER 
by Julie Lavender

On my walk with God this morning, I saw a large grasshopper that I first thought was injured. He walked so laboriously, deliberately and slowly that, from a distance, I thought it must be hurt. A few steps more and I could see its size and then even closer, I realized it was a lubber grasshopper.

CONSIDER THE ROBBER FLY
by Julie Lavender

On my walk with God this morning, something zoomed past my face and landed on a nearby leaf. Closer inspection revealed a robber fly.

Robber flies are fast-flying, beard-faced, six-legged creatures that feed on other insects. Quite often, robber flies choose to attack insects much larger than themselves.

GUEST BLOGGER

My guest today is Heather Bock, a friend I only know from this www world .... wonderful web writer! We met online through a writing community, and I have admired her blog posts ever since. She writes about finding glimpses of Jesus every day and her words can be found at www.glimpsesofjesus.com. Because my posts are glimpses of God from his amazing masterpieces, I especially liked her piece about an orchid plant. I hope you'll visit her site - you won't be disappointed! She's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside! 

God’s Time Is Beautifully Perfect

by Heather Bock

Last December, my orchid plant started sending out a flower shoot. It had been a particularly warm December, and my poor plant was confused. It figured, sitting day after day in the warm sunlight of my balmy sunroom, that spring had arrived. As it hadn’t been a year since it had bloomed the spring before, I was certainly surprised, watching it and wondering if it were going to be a twice-a-year blooming orchid now.