The sun peeks through the forested hills. Annie is at the trout park waiting with rod in hand. She is visiting with people around her. The siren sounds. They start fishing. In a matter of minutes, she caught a trout. She puts it on a stringer and makes another cast. It wasn’t long until she had her daily limit.

Someone asked what kind of lure she was using. She said, “Honey, it’s not the lure catching fish. It’s this old woman using it.” She wished them luck, and headed for her car.

She put her fish in the cooler, looked up to the sky and thanked God for this special day. An eagle was perched in a tree across from where she had been fishing. She remembered her favorite Bible verse – “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.”

When she got home, she read that Native American Indians believe an eagle delivers their prayers to the Great Spirit.  To them, the eagle meant strength, wisdom, and courage. Annie had needed all those things, and God, throughout her life. 

Sunday morning Annie told friends at church she was leaving the next day to go to Florida for a few days by herself to walk a certain beach on her birthday looking for seashells.

One of the men told her that was the same beach his wife loved to go to. They had scattered some of her ashes there. She told him she would bring him back a seashell from that beach.

With only a half-day left, she was not finding any seashells. A woman, or was it an angel, came up to her. They started talking. Annie shared the story. The woman told her to go to a certain place on the beach and she would find what she was looking for.

There was ocean kelp washed up everywhere, but no shells. Then, she saw a seed pod shaped like a heart. Annie picked it up, cried, then left for home.

When she got to church, the man welcomed her. Tears came to her eyes when she told him the story. She put the heart-shaped seed pod in his hand. With tears in his eyes, he hugged her. Our God is an awesome God.