Everywhere we’ve lived for the last couple of decades, I’ve asked God to send some golden yellow, black-winged American goldfinches because they’re some of my favorite birds. Why? I love their audacious color! And he has. Goldfinches have bobbed on tall grasses behind my apartment balcony, dined on my fading zinnias in my wide-open former pasture honest to goodness in the dirt garden—no need for deadheading, they did it for me. When I told an older woman who loves birds, that I pray for goldfinches and Father sends them, she fussed at me, exclaiming, “If you’re going to pray them in, you’d better feed them!” Hmm, being somewhat nomadic, I couldn’t get a feeding program started since I couldn’t keep it going. What could I do? God would have to feed them. He did; the seeds of the zinnias and towering sunflowers I grew at the time suited the goldfinches just fine.

I asked my heavenly Father to send them to my gardens, and he has—for my joy, simply because he loves me. But when we lived in England, I didn’t ask because American goldfinches don’t live there. My heart sank when I realized that I wouldn’t see them there; certainly, England’s goldfinches are beautiful and colorful, but not the cheeky yellow-colored ones that I love.

Now that I’m back in the US and have planted a garden here again, I’ve asked God again to send me a goldfinch—this time I added, “in a way that I can see it.” A couple of days later, as I looked out our window onto our porch, I saw a large streak of yellow zip by in that downward arcing way that low-flying birds fly. That’s how I knew it was a bird and not a butterfly. Was it a goldfinch? On my porch? My eyes couldn’t be sure, but my spirit leapt.

A few days later as I rested among my pots of plants, I talked to Father about it again. “I think you sent me a goldfinch, as I asked, but it flew by so fast, I couldn’t see it. Would you send me one where I can get a good look at it?” The same day, as I sat in my art studio looking out the window grieving the news of the death of a family member, something flitted in the window box outside the window. Probably a hummingbird since our neighbor feeds them, I thought. I leaned in to see it better. But it wasn’t a hummingbird, it was a goldfinch! It lingered for a couple of minutes eating from my Victoria Blue salvia stalks in clear view!

The next day, I asked God to keep the goldfinch around my garden all season, then I clearly saw it flying off my porch that day, to a nearby large tree. It had stayed.

God had heard me and given me what I’d asked.  As Hagar in the wilderness proclaimed, “You are the God who sees me” (Genesis 16:13). Sending a particular bird in a particular way just for my joy seems a little thing but God does care about every little thing since he created all the heavens and the earth and every little thing in them. He cares about you.

What has little thing has God shown you to let you know he’s listening to you?