THE REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF

The other day, I was acting on an urge to re-read a delightful picture book by Megumi Iwasa, a friend made about 35 years ago.

Behold the Birds of the Sky is a quaint hardcover about the size of a passport and only 40 pages thus easy to read. In it, she has one spread telling the reader about how a couple adopted an Abyssinian Cat pet "Sky", being told not to worry about its care as their Heavenly Father would see to all of it.

A page of a blue shows a large bubble showing a cat's head gazing up longingly at the sky. The sphere can be seen floating up through clouds and met by a dove at the top. The blue page facing it has Matthew 6:26 lettered in white.

Actually, the rest of the book is spent with illustrations of Sky: on the sofa, against the door, snuggled against cushions, playing with the clock, peering into a flower/up into the treetop, looking into starlight or falling snow, etc...; illustrating simple thoughts of spiritual truths.

When Meg first made this book, she also made a bookmark for me out of the Kitty gazing into the sky, and that made me so happy. Later on, she sent me another "card bookmark" from another picture: this one shows the cat resting its head on the Bible and quotes from Jer. 15:16: "Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart."

I think it's growing on me.

(Incidentally, Megumi doesn't know English, but for readers like myself, she looked up the scripture and had them printed in English too!)