“I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.”      Isaiah 45:3

This evening I went down to the creek where my children and grandchildren have loved playing for years.  Last year the meadow along the woods was nothing but mud because bulldozers had dug a deep trench so that the Marathon oil pipeline could be laid down the field and across the creek.  I hated the way our privacy had been invaded and the lovely quiet of the wooded creek seemed to be a thing of the past.  But the people from Marathon had been very nice and I was thankful that they had saved as many of our trees as possible.

This coming Fall, I am planning to teach a class of International ladies in Friendship to paint wildflowers and I wondered where I would find enough flowers, or flower magazines and pictures to use as examples.   I was hoping to order some flower catalogs that would be helpful.  I even sent off for one but it never came.

But God is so awesome!  I discovered that down at the creek and along the meadow next to the woods there was an abundance of beautiful wildflowers blooming this summer.  Many of these wildflowers I had never seen growing down there before.  There were hundreds of pretty yellow daisy like flowers growing along the edge of the woods next to the creek.I also discovered great bunches of black-eyed Susans  and lovely pink, lavender and white wild flowers which may have been some kind of phlox.  I am convinced that God not only provides for our needs but He delights in giving us the desires of our hearts when we love Him. “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.”      Psalm 37:4

And the abundance with which he does this overwhelms me!It occurred to me that the real treasures of darkness and the riches stored in secret places spoken of in Isaiah 45:3 are NOT gold and silver or precious jewels.  The real riches are those that God has hidden in seeds that suddenly spring forth producing the beauty of a tree or flower.  Or think about what happens when the seed of a man and woman is fertilized in love, and by the power of God brings forth the beauty and sweetness of a newborn baby. This is the awesome, amazing power of God to give a seed life and energy and purpose.  And it fills me with praise for the one and only Creator.

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is a work within us.”   Ephesians 3:20