A Tree Replanted in Eden

You're a tree replanted in Eden bearing fresh fruit every month.   
Psalm 1, The Message

Each of us are created to be unique and different.  God planned for each of us to be like trees planted in the Garden of Eden bearing fresh fruit every month.  However, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit that all changed.  Every person born thereafter was the same.  We became diseased trees bearing sinful fruit.

God is not to be outsmarted.  He had a plan to save us, his diseased trees, before He ever created this world.  Jesus, Son of God, released His will to the Father in a garden, then, released His life for us, on a tree.  How marvelous!  How amazing!  Then wonder of wonders His death became life.  Death had no hold on Him, Jesus, Son of God, Tree of Life!

Now, according to God's plan, we who believe in Christ Jesus, are again unique.  We each, through Him, blossom bearing good fruit, different fruit.  But hasn't God called us to be one?  One body, in Him, united in Him?  Yes, we are each different trees, bearing different fruit, in one garden. Or another way to describe this would be to say we are all unique puzzle pieces fitting together to create one puzzle.  How puzzling! 

I pray today that I would trust through the power of the Spirit of Christ to bear fruit for Him that would be nutritious for the whole Body of Christ, that is, the Church.

To God be the Glory!  Amen

Finding Faith in a Flower

A Collection of Joy
by Helen Steiner Rice

Sometimes when faith is running low
And I cannot fathom why things are so,
I walk among the flowers that grow
And learn the answers to all I would know...
For among my flowers I have come to see
Life's miracle and its mystery,
And standing in silence and reverie,
My faith comes flooding back to me.

He Leads Us Gently

He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.    Isaiah 8:6 NIV

My seven month old grandson loves flowers and plants reaching his sweet, little hands out to touch and to feel the colorful new sights that stimulate his mind.  He is a rambunctious little guy and you would think he would just grab the tender leaves and smash them between his fingers.  But he doesn't do that.  He stretches out his hands and gently touches the petals of our red petunias barely grazing them with his fingertips.

Jesus is like that.  He gently touches our hearts to lead us in the way we should go.  He knows what we need when we need it and He is always tender knowing that we are fragile.  Like the soft petals of petunias we can be easily crushed but we are guided by the Good Shepherd who carries us gently close to His heart.

To God be the Glory!  Amen.

Gardening

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be ever more fruitful.               John 15:1-2

A few years ago my husband, Michael C., had a heart attack and was told by his doctor he needed to take up a hobby as a stress reliever.  Michael C. is very good with his hands and enjoys woodworking and drawing to a certain extent.  I began to pray about this asking the Lord to provide him with a stress relieving hobby he would enjoy.  Naturally, I assumed it would involve woodworking or drawing, or at least something along those lines.  Boy, was I wrong.  I have learned to never assume where God is concerned.

To my great surprise, and I have to say it was indeed a great surprise, my prayer was answered with one word: gardening.  Michael C. has NEVER enjoyed working in the yard.  He hates to cut the grass and he never cared one whit about a shrub or flower.  Now, however, nothing gives him greater pleasure than working in the garden he built in the backyard.

Michael C. didn't just plant a garden.  He built a raised bed and grows herbs, vegetables, and flowers in the garden.  He trims shrubs and dead-heads petunias.  Each day when he gets home from work the first thing he does is check on his garden to see "how does his garden grow."

I really don't know why I think it odd that God would answer my prayer in such a way.  After all, He is the Master Gardener.  He planted a garden in Eden for the first man and woman He created and Jesus even refers to us, His children, as God's garden.  God prunes us and trims us and dead-heads us when we need it.  Like a petunia the most beautiful flowers form in us when God removes the dead buds to make way for new blooms to flower.

So...to God be the Glory!  Amen.

Friends Are Life's Gift of Love

From A Collection of Joy by Helen Steiner Rice

If people like me didn't know people like you,

Life would lose its meaning and its richness too...

For the friends that we make are life's gift of love,

And I think friends are sent right 

from heaven above...

And thinking of you somehow makes me feel

That God is love and He's very real.

Life is a Garden

From A Collection of Joy by Helen Steiner Rice

Life is a garden, good friends are the flowers,

And times spent together life's happiest hours...

And friendship, like flowers, bloom ever more fair

When carefully tended by dear friends who care...

From the song "God of Wonders"

Early in the morning
I will celebrate the light
And as I stumble through the darkness
I will call Your name by night

God of wonders, beyond our galaxy
You are holy, holy
The universe declares Your majesty
You are holy, holy.

 We use the word "awesome" to describe most anything we think is good.  A great play in a ballgame is awesome.  The newest flavor of ice cream is awesome.  A good time at an amusement park is awesome or a song we really like is described as awesome.

The word awesome comes from the the word awe defined in the dictionary as:

A mixed emotion of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder inspired by authority, genius, great beauty, sublimity, or might.

For me the only thing in the universe capable of filling the definition of awesome is the God of Wonders, the Lord of Light and Salvation, the Trinity---Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  To use the word awesome to describe anything else is to fall short of the limitless power of the Creator.

In this context some things are awesome like works of God through nature as seen in the beauty of a sunrise or sunset, the sweetness of child's smile, the awe-ful power of a tornado.

The God of Wonders displays His awesomeness all around for the world to see.  There is no language that does not understand His awesome power.  And this awesome God loves me...and you.  Now that is truly awesome!

To God be the Glory!  Amen.