Useful or useless?

It's starting to cool off here.  Not a lot, but enough that things have really slowed down in my garden.  Time to pull out plants that aren't producing anymore and start cool-weather crops.

I had several older packets of seeds that I just kept forgetting to plant, so I had tried planting those a week or so ago.  Most of those old seeds didn't even germinate.  I realized that when I have seeds in my life, even if they're good, if they're not planted promptly, they don't grow into anything at all.

As I pulled out the corn stalks that didn't produce any ears of corn, I was a bit frustrated.  But then I noticed that the roots had loosened the soil and that it was a rotation that helped the garden as a whole.  If you keep planting the same things in the same spots, you are much more likely to have pests and diseases.  It's not quite as big a deal in a small garden, but it makes me feel better.  So even though I didn't get corn, I helped the garden.  Maybe when things in my life don't go the way I had thought, I can remember that perhaps it was a "crop" that was important for my life as a whole.

Finally, as I yanked out the plants that just aren't producing as well as they did this summer, I reminded myself that sometimes there are good things in my life that have come to an end.  It doesn't mean that they didn't produce a great crop, but their time is over.

Near death experience

The title of my post probably sounds a little extreme, but it was definitely a near death experience for the creature I rescued today.

This morning, after I poured my coffee, I went to sit in my recliner as I always do.  I pulled the curtain open so I could enjoy the hummingbirds at the feeder, as I do every morning.  This morning, however, there was a poor little hummingbird, looking quite bedraggled, caught in a very large spiderweb in the window.  It was no longer struggling, and I thought for sure it was dead.

I pulled down the window, grabbed the bird, which squeaked ever so pitifully, and I had to smack the REALLY LARGE brown spider away, because it obviously realized I was taking its breakfast.  I ran outside and began pulling off the cobwebs carefully, but quickly, because I didn't know how long it had been since she had eaten.  I could feel her heart beating tremendously fast.  After cleaning off her wings and feet, I flipped her back over and held her toward the other feeder and she took off like a shot.  WHEW!!

But, as I'm sure you can figure out, that wasn't the end of the excitement.  I then needed to take care of what should have been done days ago.  Here's the problem.  Two days ago, I discovered not one, but TWO really large spiderwebs, one on each side of the hummingbird feeder.  Of course, there were two large spiders, but I didn't really believe there was any real danger to the hummers.  I detached the webs from the feeders and went on my merry way.

Obviously, I underestimated the damage possible.  I know I do that with sin in my life.  Something so seemingly small can trap and tangle, and I don't clean it out of my life as I should.

I spent all of two minutes clearing away the webs and smacking spiders.  That small investment of time two days ago would have prevented the near death of a hummingbird.

A small investment of my time memorizing scripture and staying close to God will prevent future trouble in my life as well.

Abundant, lavish, overflowing

Yesterday was youth group day for my oldest.  He loves his group!  So when the leader asked for volunteers to make snacks for a special event, he jumped on the opportunity.  He made three batches of chocolate chip cookies.  As I helped scoop them out, I thought, "this is a bit crazy", but there were supposed to be lots of kids, and he was excited.

He returned home with a LOT of cookies.  As I put them away (more for us!), I wondered why it is that my son is always a bit "overboard".  If I send him to the store to get a loaf of bread, he brings me two.  If I ask him to bring me a box of pasta from the pantry, he gets two.  If I ask him to bring two shirts with him, he brings four.  It's annoying.

However, today it occurred to me that this is another one of God's traits that is seeping out from my son.  John 10:10 quotes Jesus, "I have come that they may have life and they might have it more abundantly."  1 John 3:1 says, "how great is the love the Father has lavished on us".  And Psalm 23 speaks to how God fills our cup to overflowing.

God doesn't just give us enough to get by.  We are blessed with His continual presence, His eternal love, and His omniscient perspective.  Paul reminds us in Romans that God, "who did not spare His only son, but gave him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?"  Does this means we get everything we want?  No, but we definitely have everything we need - and then some.

I love when God oozes out of us.

Ask....and you shall receive

Still following up on those silly hummingbirds!!  I love watching them - they're gorgeous.  But have you ever noticed that they don't just fly right up to the feeder and eat while sitting?

We have two hummingbirds that come to our feeder.  One is incredibly skittish, flying about and looking carefully before feeding while in flight.  She never sits.

The other flies up, looks around briefly, then sits down and has a big drink.

I realized yesterday that perhaps we're like that with the throne of God.  We're afraid to even come close, then we only ask for just the bare necessities because we're afraid we'll make Him mad, or that He'll smite us for something we've previously done.

I think we should do as the scripture says and "come boldly before the throne".  We don't do this lightly, or without the realization that we are only allowed to come because of the marvelous grace of God and the gift of Jesus Christ, but, and I say this as a Christian who took a good 15 years to get to this point, God is not looking to smack us down at all times!!

God loves us.  And....wait for it...He even LIKES us.  He likes me.  He likes you!  He's not sitting on His throne saying, "Oh brother, back again, are you??  Why do you just keep asking me for things??"

This thought was confirmed to me today as I'm going through Beth Moore's study on the book of James.  Read James 1:5 and then read Matthew 7:7-8.  Those were my readings today, and I think they really verify what God illustrated to me through the hummingbirds.

I'm going to go sit with God and have a big drink.  I hope you do too.

Ungrateful

This is kind of a follow-up to the last post.  Yesterday, I refilled the hummingbird feeder.  I think the hummingbird was watching, because right after it came down, she was there.  Right after I put it back up, she zipped by my head and then took off again.  She didn't stop to drink, but buzzed me.

I thought, "what a brat!"  She's drinking the perfect nectar for her, she's done nothing to provide it, it's always refilled, and yet she makes sure to guard it and annoy the person that DOES continually refill this "fountain of life" for her.

Hmmm....can you see where this is going?  I am so blessed with everything I need and many things I want.  I start to assume these things are "mine" and I'm going to guard them.  If God takes them from me, I get mad, I shout, I pout....and then, oh, wait....FRESH blessings.  Yum!  And I start all over again.

I'm sure you can't relate at all, right???

Lots to Learn

Today I spent watering and weeding my garden - it was overdue.  Apparently my lessons were also overdue, because I felt there there were a LOT of applications today.

I had to tie my cucumbers onto the trellis netting, because they were getting into the tomatoes and they would try to take over the garden.  They also need the training up the trellis because I think the fruit is better when it's up off the ground and I can see it, so it doesn't get chewed on by slugs or stepped on by people.  As I tied, I realized sometimes I'm tied to, or being trained up, the trellis of God's instruction.  It's for my benefit as well as for others (those tomatoes will be happy the cukes are out of their way!).

I moved on to the tomatoes on the other side.  They're growing like crazy, with branches coming out all over the place and crowding out the smaller tomatoes.  As I hacked the extra branches back and restrained them back to their own cages, I saw that sometimes I am trimmed and pushed back to where I belong so that others can grow.

I started to clean out between the carrots - what a mess.  I left the water running all morning as I weeded and cleaned out old plants, and as I looked at how great the lettuce and carrots are doing (you should know those two things hardly ever grow for me!), I thought about my dad's admonishment about watering.  "It should be done every day," he said.  I have ignored that advice for years, because I thought, well, why can't they survive on the rain they get??  They do....but they're bitter and they're tough and we don't like to eat them.  I pondered the idea that maybe I COULD grow on only what I learn on my own (personal Bible reading), but that I don't really THRIVE unless I'm being watered by others....my pastor, my home group, my husband, my kids, my neighbors.

Lastly, an application that goes along with the picture.  I love feeding the hummingbirds, but have you ever noticed how they won't share?  There's a huge fountain of sweetness that will be overfilled without any work on their part and they fight to keep others away.   I'll let you ponder that one on your own.

In His Presence

Today I finally made it out to the garden today after having been gone for a few days last week and then having a busy weekend.  Usually, I go out every morning after exercise and my Bible reading (and some coffee, of course) and one of our cats, Mittens, comes with me.  I don't know why he does it, but he comes trotting out after me, meowing excitedly.

I open the gate and we both enter the garden.  I start weeding, trellising, clipping, watering...and my cat spends a few minutes traipsing between my legs, meowing and making cute noises.  Then he wanders away.  He's not far away, mind you, just a couple of feet, but he just lays down in the mulch and watches.  Every once in a while he'll meow at me and I'll talk back to him, but mostly he just lays there.  If I leave, he follows, but as long as I'm in the garden, he's fine.

As I watched him laying contentedly between the rows, I realized that's a good picture of how to be with God. Follow Him, talk to Him, and then rest because He's RIGHT there.  Hmmm.....