“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalms 37:4

Over the past several weeks, I’ve blogged about the scenes out my backdoor as I’ve worked from home — particularly birdwatching. It’s been one of my biggest sources of joy during this pandemic. In addition to the cardinals, woodpeckers, sparrows and nuthatches, the other day I noticed my first hummingbird of the season buzz through the backyard. I mentioned to my Mom that I wanted to get a hummingbird feeder this year, as I’ve never had one before and now seems to be the ideal time to give it a try. So excited, I figured I’d go find one this weekend.

This morning I started the day participating in a birthday car parade for a coworker. SUPER fun. We decorated my front windshield, put the top down, and tied streamers to the back headrests.

An unexpected thing happened after the parade, however. Everywhere I went, I had people – pedestrians and other drivers – wishing ME a happy birthday. My birthday is in March. But it was SO sweet. Honking horns, friendly waves, verbal wishes…I just loved it.

After a few errands, I headed back home, put the top back up (shown above), and went inside. A while later, as I baked  cookies for my son’s upcoming birthday, I had a knock at the door. It was my neighbor, gift bag in hand, wishing me a happy birthday. She and her husband had seen my car and wanted to give me a gift. Dumbfounded, I explained to her that I was part of a car parade to celebrate a colleague’s birthday, but she just laughed and said, “Well, we’ll just celebrate you today anyway!” She handed me my gift and I went back to my kitchen.

I pulled the card and yellow tissue paper out of the bag and found…a hummingbird feeder.

I was stunned. How did they know? I haven’t even begun to unpack the full meaning of this. But what I do know for certain is that this was a full-on God Wink – that God wanted me to know that he understands what is in ours hearts and what we want without even asking. And that he truly wants our happiness — even in the littlest things. Especially his creation.

It’s not my birthday, but I celebrated today.