Why cardinals?

A friend of mine who has just recently started reading this blog asked me, "Why cardinals?" 

I shared my experience with the red birds since the death of my dear friend, Mary; how their crimson color of love appears to me at times of great sadness, and fills my body with a peace that tingles from my head to my toes.  I know everything will be okay when I see cardinals.

Come to find out my friend had the same thing happen after the death of her loved one; cardinals began appearing to her, too.  This is the same friend who cheered me on during NaNoWriMo- before we had even discovered our "connection."   

Picture ornaments of Mary and Sadie, and white dove in memory of Ms. Angelle surrounded by a bevy of cardinals

Last night when the kids and I began decorating the Christmas tree Pete had so laboriously assembled with 900 lights, I was reminded of the significance of my crimson bird friend.  And as I unwrapped cardinal after cardinal to hang on the tree, I realized it had been a while since I had last seen one (remember, I had been glued to the computer for three weeks).  Then I came across picture ornaments in memory of Mary, Ms. Angelle and our dog Sadie, (who died in-between them).  I reminisced over happy times as I decorated the tree.  When I went to bed, I asked God to please never stop sending me cardinals. 

This morning I was at the computer before church typing my poem for the PAD Challenge, when Pete walked over to me.  (The entire back wall by my computer is a row of bay-like windows. Pete had covered up the one right by my computer  at the beginning of November because the sun created a glare, and the hot and cold weather seeped through while I did my work. The other windows remain uncovered).

"The only bad thing about blocking the light from your computer is that you can't see the family of cardinals playing out back right now," he said.

I hopped up from my computer and looked out on the patio.  Flashes of red caught my eyes as I watched the cardinals dance; male and female, big and little.  There must have been six or eight cardinals on the other side of the glass.  Reveling in the miracle before me, I knew God would always provide for me when I ask.  I prayed for a cardinal and He sent me a family; God is just like that!