A Curious Garden of Angels

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Scroll down to read about Pearl seeing a strange being who appears and disappears in our Backyard Garden. Her friend, The Raven With Blue Eyes explains further as Pearl discovers more than she had ever dreamed possible. Join her as she discovers that God, The Great Gardener, and Jesus, His Son, both care about what we care about.

At first, the Curious Being that Pearl glimpsed would move from the sunlight and into the shadows and back again. With wings, it appeared to be a bird, but there had never been a bird with feathers colored like what Pearl saw.

As The Curious Being moved from the shadows in the garden and into the sunlight, Pearl was able to get a closer look. What had looked like a bird now appeared to be something with wings, but in the sunlight, they didn’t appear to be ordinary wings. Instead they were more vibrant and colorful than imaginable.The Curious Being appeared to have been immersed in the Color of Love, Pearl had only seen this color once before when The Great Gardener’s Son had brought two young baby chicks for Pearl to raise as if they were her own.Anyone who has spent time with Jesus, The Great Gardener’s Son, will reflect The Color of Love.

Whatever this Curious Being was, it had a majesty and a beauty about it like none Pearl had ever seen anywhere. She was mesmerized by the colors she saw on the creatures wings. Pearl decided she needed to talk to The Songbirds of the Living Library.Pearl was confident that they would have the answers she needed.The Songbirds of The Living Library have the united purpose of preserving all knowledge since the first birds leaped into the sky and sang out in thanksgiving to The Great Gardener for the gift of flight. They serve answers to chickens before any other bird because The Living Library was started many years ago by a chicken to save the world from destruction because of the Evils of Mankind.

Pearl met with the wrens in the garden as usual and told them about what she had seen. They were unsure what it might have been, but advised her that they would get the story of the sighting to The Raven With Blue Eyes since her eyes could see what others could not. She would have the best advice to help Pearl in her search for the truth about The Curious Being.

After covering as much territory as possible, The Raven With Blue Eyes decided to return to The Backyard Garden until a sudden storm made her river crossing more difficult than expected, but The Raven With Blue Eyes wouldn’t give up. She had to report her findings to Pearl.The Raven’s persistence was inspiring to everyone whose life she touched, especially to those in The Kingdom of Birds who knew her best.

Like waiting for the tastiest fruit to ripen, Pearl did have to wait for the answers that she needed. Pearl knew those answers would be worth the wait.The Raven With Blue Eyes set the standard for what was expected from any member of The Living Library. As soon as she landed in the Backyard Garden, she began to explain all that she had discovered during her travels.

“I know that you chickens in The Backyard Garden have often wondered about guardian angels that people have,” said The Raven with Blue Eyes. “You knew that guardian angels were real because Jesus spoke about them in The Ancient Words. As chickens, you have had Ravens like myself and Crows to defend you in the world that you can see, but there are other defenders in the world that you can not see. These are The Angels, and you have glimpsed them with your own eyes. You must have a gift similar to my own Blue Eyes.”

“Blanche, your sister, was the first of my chickens to be buried under the camellias here in The Backyard Garden. Because All of you cared about her, all of you were concerned that she would not have someone to watch over her, especially when Nate, your Backyard Gardener, was not home or if this home that his grandparents gave him was ever sold.“You must know that whatever concerns our hearts concerns the heart of Jesus too.”The Raven With Blue Eyes continued by saying, “Even if that is a far stretch of your faith since you won’t find it mentioned in The Ancient Words, surely you know Jesus is concerned about whatever concerns the heart of Nate, your friend who cares about you.“As Jesus Himself said, ‘Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow seeds nor reap and gather seeds into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds the birds of the air.”
After saying this, The Raven With Blue Eyes asked Pearl, “Are you chickens not of more value than the birds of the air even though you are more birds of the ground since you fly so poorly and do not soar above like The Ravens or The Crows?”

“Not only are there angels who watch over particular kinds of animals, there are also angels who watch over animals with a particular condition, such as being lame and unable to walk. Some are born with a missing limb. Others lose a limb through accident. An upraised angelic arm can support and steady the precious animal since all are precious in the sight of Jesus who the Angels obey.”

Pearl learned that some angels help the forgotten animals. They are the ones like who have been tied up and ignored or dumped into an abandoned spot. Our own ginger cat named Ernest was just such a pet once. Someone had dumped him at the end of our dead end street near where The Big Boy at the End of The Street lives.We are grateful for the angel who led Ernest to our Backyard Garden where he watches over us, protecting the chickens’ food from field mice. Ernest wants nothing more than to be fed and loved. (We will be sharing his story with you soon in another GraciePress book.)

Any angel who has been given the task of tending to the hurt animals is particularly sorrowful over the hurt pets. They are saddened because people have hands through which the comfort and healing of God can flow to those pets. The hands of angels are unable to do this work when tending to the hurt ones. The Great Gardener himself told The First Man and The First Woman to take care of and have dominion over the animals that he had created.

With so many friends who were songbird Pages in The Living Library, Pearl was happy to learn that there were angels who were assigned to look after the songbirds of The Living Library. They carried copies of The Ancient Words in The Language of The Songbirds to ensure that what was sung from it was correctly using The Language of the Heart, the only language directly from God Himself and understood by whosoever hears its words.

Usually, Pearl and the other chickens had felt safe in their Backyard Garden Home. Part of this was because the Raven with Blue Eyes and Her Squadron of Crows kept watch over them, but when they were off on a mission elsewhere, there was always an angel to watch for any activity by The Absence of Love who opposed God and all God created with His awesome Love.

There was an Angel of Graceful Movement who watched over my chickens from the start. I believe it was a different angel who noticed the lump on Gracie’s side who called this particular angel for help. As a result, Gracie developed into a marvelous ballet dancer. This angel’s work helped the other chickens too.

The Raven With Blue Eyes saw how Pearl and all of the Backyard Garden chickens had come to believe that they are able to make their way over every challenge. But they knew much of their success had to do with An Angel of Surmounting Challenges assigned to them by The Great Gardener. This taught them not to trust only in themselves or only in an angel but in The Great Gardener Himself, The One Who Never Changes.

My chickens relied on An Angel of Expectant Vision quite often. This Angel helped them to see ahead and predict what would likely happen based on what had happened in the past. If there was ever a message from The Great Gardener for them about what would be their best choice, then this angel would be the one to deliver it to them after reminding them of their past lessons learned by experience.

The Angel of Radiant Beauty is the last angel that The Raven With Blue Eyes told Pearl about and that Pearl told me about.I have often heard people say “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and so it’s likely that this particular angel has the easiest task of any of the angels who watch over my chickens who are always beautiful to me. It is a beauty that comes from within. They simply are beautiful because The Great Gardener made them that way and shared His Gracious Love with them.

Pearl had learned some great lessons from seeing the Curious Creatures and discussing Angels with The Raven With Blue Eyes. But there was One Thing she knew from listening to Jesus with her heart. The Great Gardener’s Son is like every single angel combined into one.It is like having his powers spread out to others, and not only His Angels. Jesus is with Pearl and all other animals through the hearts and the hands of His People like you and like me. We are all his heart and his hands to create goodness in this world which His Father and Ours, The Great Gardener, created for us.To Pearl, it seems that we are all still living in Day Six from “The Book of Beginnings.” We have not fully arrived at Day Seven because God is still creating, except now he is creating goodness through our hearts and hands. But soon King Jesus will return and He will usher in Day Seven, The Day of Rest for All.

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J.R. Spiers writes and illustrates magical realism books based on the adventures of his six backyard chickens. Gracie, Bessie, Blanche, Pearl, Emily, and Amelia.Some people believe he is also behind the reference books compiled by Nate Elliot.Whoever he is, that is a most curious mystery known only by a small flock of the most amazing chickens anywhere in the world!

Pearl is the current Editor-In-Chief for GraciePress. It is a position which she has basically inherited from Bessie and Amelia (co-editors), who inherited the position from Gracie the very first Editor-In-Chief for GraciePress.Pearl brings a completely new perspective to what we share with the world online and through print. Pearl has always had a close relationship with The Songbirds of The Living Library. They have helped her with finding facts and materials to turn into hats and costumes for her musical comedy shows.Pearl is loved by readers across our area of Coastal Virginia and beyond. She has friends and readers from almost every country and every continent of the world.

We enjoy hearing from our fans!