How sweet and comely is your thanksgiving to the Lord for blue skies and violet flowers in your garden. Such a note proves a grateful heart, and gratitude is a most fragrant virtue in the sight of God.
Every Christian should be ambitious to have the hand of God connected with everything that he has, so that when he looks upon his house or his garden he may see God's Providence in giving it to him. You have done well to trace these beauties to their true source. The blue heavens above and the violet blossoms beneath are not by chance, but by the bounty of Him who crowns the year with His goodness, and whose paths drop fatness. Here we have crowning mercies calling for crowning gratitude.
Do not, I pray you, receive such blessings without making a note of them. Many receive many mercies and yet make no record of them, from whom God hears no song of praise, though even the birds charm the woodlands with their minstrelsy. You have rather turned your garden into a temple, and every flower into a text for praise. The Lord who gives beauty for ashes delights to adorn His children's lives with such gentle glories, that their countenances and their spirits may be radiant with thankfulness.
May this gratitude prove itself also by tangible deeds. She who was healed ministered unto Christ, and said in her heart, The Lord has served me, I will serve Him. So let your thanksgiving overflow into service, first to Christ Himself in prayer and devotion and obedience, and next to His people. Let your life declare His wondrous works as your lips have done.
I join my own thanksgiving with yours, and praise the only wise God our Savior, who keeps us and crowns us with lovingkindness. May He keep you in His hand this day, and cause His face to shine upon you, and may your garden continue to preach to you of His faithful love, until you come to that better country where the flowers fade not.
Blessed be His name for all His goodness to you.