The Longing Trails Along With Me

Evening finds me wishing I had done the outside chores earlier.  The goats will soon begin to call for the evening grain and it may be cold. I've been caught up all day thinking of this from some morning reading: 

"In my inner soul there had always been and lingered the deep, persistent, at times painful longing for a bit of soil:  A place where I could plant" ......Phillip Keller.

 A longing trails along with me, the longing for a rooted place, too, a place where change is rare, where I can plant an orchard, build fences and barns, put perennials all around and have loved ones near.  My inner self sometimes longs to stop my world and hold good things as they are, to stop the fleeting forward motion of growing kids, aging parents, everyone, everything engaging in this "freestyle" flux. The great highs will move along the way just as the dark lows do. Oh my, such flux and flow.  Help me to let go.

"It is an ancient art taking untamed land and turning it into a homestead."  P. Keller

 I find here the reflecting of the solid walls and unchanging charm of being the homestead of God, his dwelling place.  The temple garden where whatever He plants, and whatever He builds and grows will last and not fade with the tug of time, nor the pull of earth.

 And  I know everything God does endures for all time. Nothing can be added to it; nothing can be taken away from it. We humans can only stand in awe of all God has done. (Ecclesiastes 3:14,King Solomon)

 I thought of how the "Farmer's" seed fell on fertile soil, it produced a crop thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted. (Matthew 4:8) I see a glimpse of the bit of soil, the homestead garden is built and never torn down, where what He does is perpetual, where perennial gardens grow. There IS a place in a heart redeemed where all we gain can stay. And with these thoughts, I end my day.  :) 


"When looking for a spot to settle, one of the essential attributes it had to possess was a patch of ground suitable for a garden."  P. Keller
............. "Two little lines I heard one day, traveling along life's busy way; bringing conviction to my heart, and from my mind would not depart; Only one life, 'twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last." C.T. Studd