I Planted a Garden

I’m looking out the window into the south field where I have planted a garden.  I covered it with old hay and wood chips when I learned that the perfect balance and protection would only exist with a covering of all the soil.  I put a fence around it when I realized that the dogs would not see, nor respect the tiny, precious, seedlings emerging. 

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one.................

2 whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

I learned, as I was building my garden, and listening to other more knowing gardeners, that pests attack the plants when they are in distress, and not so much when they are thriving in a balance of moisture, nutrition, and sunlight.   It seems that over time, as this mulch covering decays, it becomes nutritious soil from the bottom upwards.  The health and vitality of the soil grows from year to year as it is left under this lovely, protection where seedlings can thrive.  ♥  It is good to keep planting in the covering.


Psalms 91:4   Like a bird protecting its young, God will cover you with His feathers,
    will protect you under His great wings;
    His faithfulness will form a shield around you, a rock-solid wall to protect you.

My family built an arbor for me for my 48^th birthday which has become an entrance to the garden.  It has a double gate that my son, Jack, and I built.  I don’t let in the chickens, nor the dogs.  I wouldn't welcome our cats or goats or any animal through the gate; nothing can come in that does not respect and benefit the garden.  I’m becoming a good gardener.

Psalms 147:13  For His divine power reinforces your city gates, blesses your children in the womb.
14 He establishes peace within your borders, fills your markets with hearty golden wheat.

Once I looked out to find the chickens had flown over the fence and were madly scratching and greedily flinging the covering into the air in search of worms and bugs.  I removed them.  Now my family is building a coop where chickens will have a new home and will soon find that their wing feathers have been clipped.  I've decided to care for my garden well and remove any threats.

 Psalms 3:3 But You, Eternal One, wrap around me like an impenetrable shield. 

The sun is shining on the arbor now as morning grows long.  It glistens off of the fence, and is surely warming the wood chips.  I can see some green plants peeking out from here in my chair by the window.   As I tend this simple patch of ground I'm so perfectly and daily moved by heaven's  kindest metaphors, it's most comforting language.  And in mute remembrance knowing this utterance is heard and seen on every patch of ground, in every imaginable place where there are human eyes and ears who wish to "see" and "hear".

Romans 1:20  From the beginning, creation in its magnificence enlightens us to His nature. Creation itself makes His undying power and divine identity clear, even though they are invisible; and it voids the excuses.....

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

John 16:13 The Spirit of truth will come and guide you in all truth.

Philippians 4:7  And know that the peace of God will stand watch over your hearts and minds in Jesus, The Anointed One.

... Under His covering... 

Making it Home

A phone call and my life is distinctly changed this morning because my friend made it home.

Should I cry or should I just sit here in awe of the sinking knowledge?  It’s sinking in all around me in that heavy and wondrous way.  It is filling up my consciousness, and once again I go to the place of profound awareness of the “over-there-land”.   Many just call it home, and my friend made it home. 

A few years ago (and for many years before) she was raising a few chickens in her and her husband’s retired, full scale chicken house operation.  The houses are old now and run down, but all the better for her to enjoy her hobby of bringing up new chics of interesting varieties, rabbits, and pigeons.  She raised pure breed dogs in another old chicken house for some time and she tried her hand at raising a few goats from our place, but that never took off for her.  What a kind, generous, and wonderfully interesting friend she was.  I miss her this morning knowing that she’s gone home.  An achy knowing lingers now that I can’t depend that she is over that north hill doing her thing and being who she was. 

Just a few years ago she came by for a reason I can’t remember now, but visits were always involving our love of raising critters.  She shared with me the extraordinary miracle that had happened to her-- and later, after she’d gone, I cried for joy.  She said she had entrusted her life and soul to Him who holds all of our eternal fates in His hands.  She had “believed unto her salvation” and now knew she was going to heaven.  I remember her mentioning that fact;  she was now going to heaven.  Wow, my friend is home.

They say that home is where your heart is, and it is surely true.   Our life here is like the tender flowers in the springtime field;  here for a little while and then faded and gone away so soon.  I never like to see the flowers go.  Now it is right to be glad that  I saw her blooming here, knew her, and enjoyed some of the beautiful ways that she graced the world just being her.  I'm so grateful to be comforted in these morning hours knowing that she is alive and well beyond this veil of flesh and blood;  she is  home.

For Marilyn 

The Beautiful Dead

In the quiet of this winter morning I was struck by the thought of "the beautiful dead".  The lonesome corpse laying quiet behind the stone. The whole thing seemed so deeply grim from their view, but to mine it is tenderly different. 


John 19:40
⁴⁰ Together, they took Jesus’ body and wrapped Him in linens soaked in essential oils and spices, according to Jewish burial customs.


It was a dismal tragedy upon all of their hopes and understanding, and a tragedy of their love for Him!  


His skin torn by a cruelly placed thorn crown, His wounded side now hidden beneath grave clothes, and His hands;  the hands that will forever point the "eyes of the willing to see" to His magnificent and willing surrender.   I hold my face in awe of this.  How can this be?


^{Romans 5:7-8} Now it is rare to find someone willing to die for an upright person, although it’s possible that someone may give up his life for one who is truly good. ⁸ But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display—the Anointed One died for us.


Yet beyond the tenderly wrapped up arms and legs that did no harm....just beyond that cloth-wrapped head and his once walking feet, He flew into the mystery-land to the Father's side.   "It is finished!  Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit!"  Just then, in an exhale, on past His tortured, manly frame, He flew.   


What has He done?!  What has He done?!  It is finished!


And when that magnificent life-swell plunged back into that privileged, lifeless dust again it must have fairly PULSED with heaven's sweetest once again!!!!!! Once as the sweetest baby boy in Bethlehem, and now conquering God-man-King in Israel and of ALL.  Hallelujah!  Our God made a way!

If Our Hearts Awaken ♥♥♥

If our hearts awaken to the nearness of God, then we know that He Himself, His amazing, wonderful self is at work in us.  If we wonder about Him, we can know that He is holding the other end of that priceless strand of thought with His own hands because, as Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them." We have been thoughtfully "drawn" into this place, we did not arrive here on our own.   When we wonder of God, we are being wooed of God.  Isn't that amazing?  And we know that when we presently seek Him, He is found by us...our hearts awaken to His nearness.......our hearts feel the explosive wonder of HIM ♥♥♥

 
  An early morning "explosion" left a rubble of words in my diary; a teeny-weeny attempt to submit a pile of meager vocabulary to render a glimpse of who He is on January 6, 2015 to me.    You are welcome to add some of your own--  lofty adjectives and all!

Who Jesus is to me today! Some words may be home-made. :)

 Darkness Lifter

Veil Tear-er !  {The one who tore the veil (Matthew 27:51)}

 Dungeon Crasher !

Joy Exploder

Soul Liberator

Heart Chaser -Heart Finder - Heart Lover

Kind Watchman over we, His flock

He is Laugh Bubbler

Name Caller---  He calls us beloved ♥

He takes all of life and composts our days and experiences (good and bad) into rich, dark soil that He can plant and harvest in.  Nothing is wasted!  He is Farmer Extraordinaire! 

He is Eye Opener

Great and Gentle Leader

Faith Author and Faith Finisher

He is Lord over Details

He is the Un-muddler of Minds

Un-tangler of epic life tangles

He is  Hand Holder

Sin Forgiver

Mind Changer 

Mind Easer

Joy Stirrer

Dream Author

Enemy Stumbler

Grief Lifter

Future Holder

Freedom Flavor


As our hearts awaken, He is seen for who He is:  Everything to Us.

Severe Simplicity; Could It Really Be?

Is it that severely simple (?);  cut off from complication, exempt from misunderstanding,  the truth about love;  His love???  (John 3: 6) 

 He put His love on full display.  

And what a display it was--and what a love;  the betrayal, the beating, the lies, the trial, that struggle to the cross and His haunting silhouette hanging there.  It has been discussed, mocked, studied, told, foretold, hated and marveled at by countless humanity.  It has been explained and rebutted.  It is so very large, yet so strikingly simple.

LOVE  

And I was remembering how in the garden when it all went down that day, how they remembered His words from before:  ".........if you eat of the fruit of this tree you will surely die", but they ate it anyway.   And I wondered at His use of the pronoun "you" shall surely......."  because, as my heart beats quicker, I embrace again with both horror and glee that at that moment of decision and consumption the clock began to tick and tock for a day when He, too, would surely die----for us.   What love! 

And it has taken such a long, long time, it seems, to "see it" more clearly.  Like a child who doesn't realize, until too much later, how much their parents loved them, I find myself moving into these last hours of 2014 with wonder over His true love........ and hope for mine.

And among my fondest hopes for 2015, this is the one that is catching my imagination and desire more than any other;  A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  (John 3:34)  and then this;   By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, IF you love one another. 

To be known as His own, what an idea...what a hope!  And if all of my life came to a screeching halt and 2015 wasn't mine after all, would I leave joy drowned in the knowledge that He loves me?  And would the loftiest new goal in my small life be accomplished this far; to love as He loves me?  Have I loved well?  Can I love truer and better, like HIM?  

His love Is too good to be true, yet it is true.   My hope for 2015 is Love.

 


Happy New Year! 

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Look inside my kitchen window where the daily rhythms pulse.  It's warm against the other side of the white window and it probably smells of some love potion brewing on the stove or out from the oven like warm trays of rolls and soft chocolate chip cookies, roasts, and Italian vegetable soup;  my love language. 



Before the cold blew in, things looked more like this.

 And even though I knew it couldn't really be true, it seemed like the zinnias would last forever and ever.

 

               It seemed the window sill would always be filled with them.

         And the morning glories would keep meeting me early.

Life and times have a way of seeming invincible and sure.  The frost came and tapped my shoulder, shaking me from my sweet delusion to remind that everything changes-- that there is a time and a season for every activity under the heavens.  (Ecclesiastes 3:1)  May we have the grace and dignity to let go at the appropriate times and to hang on when we know that we should.  And may we have the wisdom to recognize one from the other. 

 

 

Do As I Have Done For You ♥

This is the tale of some friends, and friends to be, gathered together one late summer weekend, and our experience with John 13.   He said to "do as I have done for you."  Here is what that looked like for me and for some of my friends. ♥

          ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

She began to read the verses and to shuffle our hearts into order.  She brought our readiness and refreshed us with images of a holy scene.  

 ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  John 13:3-4

She lead and we followed her there as she read.  

  ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.  John 13:5

Outside and under the evening sky,  the kettle brimmed with water for our washing and a clean towel for our drying, but I still wasn't sure I wanted anyone to have to touch my feet.

⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
⁷ Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”  John 13:6-7

And she gently pressed on,  and somewhere between her words my heart lurched, letting the HOLY seep over my awkwardness into willingness.  

⁸ “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
⁹ “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”  John 13:8-9

We took our seat, one by one, and put our feet down for the water--for the washing.  Music played as we slipped each off, our shoes, and the resistance.  We slipped down into each other's hearts, too.  

And those with prophetic gifts sat their hands onto our shoulders, but somehow reached all the way into our hearts; reached to post love notes there and leave gifts just right for each.  For some, they lifted heavy burdens, and for others, wrapped robes of joy and mirth around ready shoulders.  I heard their laughter ring out right there with wet feet and an "AMEN" sealing the moment.  Some stood up expectant with their gift in hand, some stood healed, some rose on ready feet and others with permission to rest.  I saw that what was needed was given for each, one by one.
 

 ¹² When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  John 13:12-15

 As the voices wafted into the night air and music softly played, we sat undone by the washing and undone by love.





 



 

Notes on The Kind Kingdom

In this kind kingdom our most kind and kingly Father walks us through splintered heart cries and powerful plunges into pain.  One could describe His abiding gaze as rays of sweet sunshine illuminating the gloom and sopping up the pooling sorrow.  He steps gently with our steps.  He unfolds the dimensions of His care for His own as the hours of each day stretch out.


In the kind kingdom where our gentle Father reigns, the house of sorrow draws throngs of friends equipped with loving kindness.  Here pain cues rescue and cries cue prayer, struggles cue rising warrior brothers and sisters who put aside dish towels and lawn mowers to hold spirit swords in brave hands to do battle for beloved hurting ones in their reach.  In this kingdom no one fights alone and no one celebrates alone.

Galatians 6:2  Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.