The Gift

          Tis the gifting season!   We give gifts at Christmastime, but giving gifts at random times can have much more surprise and joy.  Gifts can sometimes give special joy year round.  Each time I step out the front door I see this wire plant stand and smile.  I am again reminded of our lovely daughter-in-law's thoughtfulness.  Thoughtfulness, because the gift was for no special reason and also because she knew what I loved:  gardening.  Isn't it wonderful to be remembered for no special occasion!

          Christmas is a wonderful celebration of God's precious gift to us - Jesus.  His gift is not just for December but for eternity!  Jesus knows our great need, our pain, our troubles, our helplessness.  Sometimes we don't know it though.  The thoughtfulness and love of God is beyond description and totally enough to meet our need.  Totally enough to erase our sin and darkness.  Totally enough to take care of our eternity.  And He is able to use all these trials and sorrows in life for His glory and our good so that one day we will understand all that He was doing.  I am counting on it.

          Counting on God's great care is just what He wants.  He stretches me ever so far and grows my faith and trust in Jesus.  His Word promises me that His Christmas gift will forever be for me.  And His gift is for the whole year!  It never wears out or breaks, it is for no special occasion.  He is always thinking of me.  He goes before me, He comes after me.  How great is that?  Are you counting on His gift to you?  Are you surprised by His love?                                                                                  K.C.  

Holy Roof

                                                     

          Definitely, the birds needed a new feeding station!  But, alas, after we built a new one, it took them quite a while to not be suspicious of it.  The old one had character and was well used.  It fit the garden.  It wasn't scary.  Even if it had holes in the roof, it was home.  For weeks the birds refused to go near and eat from the new feeder.  Until the fall came the birds stayed away.  As the flowerbeds became bare, one by one, the birds ventured toward the platform to nibble.  Now they are flocking to it each morning.  

          This sure is a picture of us.  We like our habits, our settled life.  No changes for me, thank you.

I like security and safety, no surprises or unexpected change.  The problem is that life just isn't like that.  Wherever do we get stuck off track?  God's goodness and faithful care gets taken for granted, and then we forget the main point of life - Him.  We pay more attention to His gifts than to Him.  Our roof has holes in it.  God knows our heart, He knows our soul.  I think what He wants is for us to see our own heart.  When things are taken away that we depend on, our heart and soul are seen bare and open.  We see the truth about our true desire and our true need for depending on God.  Oh, for a heart that desires God alone!  A heart that depends on the Sovereignty of God.  I am coming to the conclusion that most of the trials we go through in life are to reveal what we really believe about God's Sovereignty.  He is in control, and is never out of control, of each detail of our life.   His desire is that we depend on His great love and care for our lives.  His goodness and plan will bring about His purposes for us.  He wants a holy roof for us!

          And His purpose for us is always good and for our best, right?                                      K.C.

New Life

          Precious new life!  This little cherub, Gage Loyal,  makes number 14 as well as 5 in heaven we are waiting to meet.  He will join his brothers in a flash running around the garden looking for "pillars" (caterpillars), bugs, and pinecones.  Life in the summer garden flies by quickly and then it is autumn again.  Our lives fly by quickly as well, and before you know it there are 14 grandchildren and you wonder, how did that happen!  I was just reading yesterday Psalm 39:4 - 6, "Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.  Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.  Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them."  How we need reminding everyday what is truly important!    

          Lord, help me to "garden" these cherubs and point them to Jesus.  May Your love flow through me so that they see how precious You are, how much You love them, how amazingly awesome You are, and how much joy You are planning for them.  Help me use the days You have given for this very important task.                                                                                                                  K.C.

Dad's Boat

          Dad was an avid fisherman.  I mean AVID.  He was able to retire early so he could go fishing everyday, and he did.  Our freezer was always full of wonderful chinook and salmon, steelhead and crappie.  Dad used his small boat to do amazing things.  He fine tuned his motor to skim over 2 inch rapids and had the other fishermen jealous.  He was followed much of the time to his favorite holes because they wanted to know where he caught the big ones.  Dad usually talked to whoever was in his boat about Jesus.  The older he got, the more he talked, and the bolder he became.

          Isn't that how we should all want to be?  Fishermen that others want to follow toward the Master, our Lord Jesus Christ?   I desire to be good at what God has called me to do, so that by using that platform others will follow Jesus, too.  What is your platform?  Your hobbies and interests?  God is waiting for you to use them for His kingdom.  We make speaking for Jesus a separate activity in our lives.  God desires to go fishing with us so He is always present speaking through us.  

         Dad's boat now sits in our garden near the fort, and the grandchildren play all kinds of things in it.  We just couldn't bear to part with it.   Because, once again, the memories give us great cause to sing the praises of Jesus.                                                                                                          K.C.

Wagon's Precious Haul

         This old wagon hauled around a lot of precious cargo over the years.  That cargo of six has since grown up  and grown older, although it is still precious.  Many memories float through my eyes each time I view this old wagon.  You see, this is not just a wagon; it is a reminder of God's amazing goodness to our family.  Even though this cargo has long ago dismissed this wagon and moved into life, I still look on this wagon with gratefulness.  What opportunity, what privilege, what treasure, what love fills my heart when I look on it!  Young moms, take stock of your wagon.  The years fly by so quickly - fill your heart with memories that cause you to praise the Lord Jesus for His goodness to your family.  When you are filling your heart with these memories, it is much easier to look with eyes of thanksgiving and praise rather than complaining and nagging.  

       So, now we have a new wagon - a Gorilla.  That first cargo has their own precious cargo and do they like to fly around our garden on that Gorilla!  I am making brand new memories, and they don't know it, but they are making memories, too.  When Mema (that is me) is gone to heaven, they will chat around the table about zinging around the garden on the Gorilla.  May Jesus fill their hearts with joy and love and wonderful memories.  And may your heart be filled with memories that you are making, full of joy and grateful love.  Someday this Gorilla will be a relic in the flowerbed, too.  To remind them of God's amazing goodness to them.

Blow upon my Garden

          "... Blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out.  Let my beloved come to His garden and

                eat its pleasant fruits."     Song of Solomon 4:16                       

          Mmmmmm.  Can you smell that roasted Italian tomato sauce permeating the house with luscious warmth?  From garden to oven, from Cuisenart to freezer bags for the winter, this is one of our favorites.  Spices thoroughly change our blah meals to delightful mouth watering deliciousness.

How many of us ever sit down to eat a bowl of basil or cinnamon?  How about a bowl of pepper or oregano?  Nutmeg or a bowl of Balsamic vinegar?  No, I haven't heard of anyone eating a bowl of spice.  Such valuable and needed elements in our lives, yet needed to be used in the right way.  Spices literally change our food when used properly.  

          Look up the word "spice" in Scripture and you will find amazing thoughts!  Spice, fragrance, perfume;  this item was highly prized in Scripture.  Spices were one of the gifts to Solomon from the Queen of Sheba, and was a feature in the king's storehouses.  It was an ingredient in the anointing oil and fragrant incense used in the Tabernacle.  Spices are listed in Revelation 18 when the merchants of the earth mourn over their loss of merchandise.  In the book of John, Mary anointed Jesus' feet with spikenard, a very expensive fragrant oil.  Jesus' body was wrapped in rich spices before burial.  Throughout history, spices have been highly prized and sought after.  

         Our senses perk up to spices . Picking fresh leaves of basil leave an amazing aroma in the air as well as on your taste buds and fingers.  Our lives take on the flavor of spices we absorb, too.  Jesus said in His Sermon that we are to be the salt of the earth and not to lose our flavor.  And it is our flavor that influences other people around us.  If you are like me, you want people to perk up to the living Christ who lives in you.  It is not me, but Jesus in me, who is the Spice of fragrance and flavor.  So, the more I soak up Jesus and His great grace and love, the more I am able to be spice to people.  

         These are just musings from the garden that make me think about Jesus' great love and His amazing ways!  Which spice do you love?  How do you want to smell to others?                      K.C. 

Sweetpeas Downsized

Overflowing flowerbed of sweetpeas to 4 puny starts.

          Last year the sweet peas were massive!  Such a luxurious bed of multi-colored flowers filled the side of the porch and to the height of 5 feet!  I really enjoyed them.  Thinking that they would 

re-seed themselves even more beautiful this year, I eagerly watched for starts to appear.  And I watched and I watched.  For several months.  Hmmm.  This is all that showed up this year.  What a disappointment!  

          The Lord is reminding me to take joy and pleasure TODAY in His gifts.  Tomorrow may not come or it might be different.  If I live in "the tomorrow", I miss out on "the today".  Even though we are to plan and wisely save for the future, the line is crossed when we constantly are looking for better and bigger and more and more.  It does seem to me that we miss out on a lot of pleasures and a lot of opportunities for praise when we do this.  Today it is the will of our Lord Jesus for us to be grateful and thankful.  I Thessalonians 5:18, "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus in you."  Let us not miss the joy prepared for us today while we are wishing for tomorrow's bigger joys.  

          Such a simple lesson that we skip over, isn't it?  The sweet peas and other plants in our garden have shown me this same lesson year after year.  One year has a bountiful crop of corn, but next year's is skimpy.  I am focusing on gratefulness to God this summer, looking for small nuances of the meaning of living in joyous thanksgiving.  This "sweet pea lesson" shows me to live in joy TODAY  for joy is a "present" word.                                                                                                       K.C.

Tiny Starts

                                          These tiny starts are going to be luscious full peonies!

                                                        And these small green starts ......

                                                   Are going to be graceful white calla lilies.

           One of the purposes of writing these thoughts on "paper" is to speak to my grandchildren as they grow up.  Right now they are tiny starts and so very adorable and precious.  They melt my heart as they unknowingly reveal their personalities and hearts.  All that is important to them is eating and playing right now.  Their delight is to find raspberries or blueberries on the vines to eat, even though it is November or February!  Or to hunt for "George" (my mom's name for the garden snake).  Or to collect BBs the boys have shed across the pasture and lawn as they play war.  They love Jesus, and He is as real as you or me.   No doubt or worry or trouble clouds their minds for they know they are loved and protected.  But we know they have to grow up and face life.  So we pray and trust Jesus to grow them strong and faithful.

          Even though these 13, with another couple on the way, and 4 in heaven already, are just little starts, God is at work each day "feeding" and nurturing them.  Who knows from these tiny starts, what God will do with their lives?  Their roots underground  are being strengthened and fed with love and faith, discipling and training, mostly through their parents' faithfulness and commitment to Jesus Christ.  One day, and very soon, they will grow up to be beautiful and fruitful, just as God has created them to be.  "How awesome are Your works! ...Come and see the works of God;  He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men...Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul."  Psalm 66.  It is God who works for our children and grandchildren, and we declare His glory to the nations!  We pray our grandchildren's great delight, now and forever, will be to worship God and sing praises to His name, to bless His name before all peoples.  "Certainly God has heard me;  He has attended to the voice of my prayer.  Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me!"  Psalm 66.   

          So in reality, it is God who is faithfully committed to growing these tiny starts, guiding and directing their paths.  It is His mercy or lovingkindness, His "hesed", that grows our grandchildren to sing His praises.  Our part is to keep our eyes on Jesus.  He will not turn away our prayer.  He will not give us stones for bread.  He will answer.  Our grandchildren will stand and declare, "Come and see what our awesome God has done!"                                                                                          K. C.

The Old Bike

          This is my first bicycle.  At age 5 my mom and dad bought me a brand new bike, and it was a doozy!  No, my feet did not reach the ground.  By lining up near the fence or telephone pole I could push off and pedal quickly to get moving.  Then to get off I would put the brakes on and slowly pedal up to a post and wrap an arm around it.  There was a steep hill in the back of our neighborhood which was a great place to coast down in fast speed.  I do remember a major crash once that scraped the leather off the corner of my seat, as well as scraping multiple areas of me!  Bummer.  When it came time to move stuff out of mom and dad's house, I just couldn't part with my old bike.  It is like an old friend with many memories associated with it.  Now it's home is at the corner of the raspberry patch.

          Walking through the garden near my old bike reminds me how fast life goes by.  It reminds me of carefree childhood days.  It reminds me of my parents' love.  It reminds me of God's patience with me.  It reminds me that the rusty things of this world don't last.  It reminds me that I am on my way to heaven.  It reminds me to pray for others.  It also reminds me of the preciousness of life.  Yes, I will leave my old bike in the garden as a great reminder of many things.  

          There are over 200 mentions of "remember" in the Word of God.  (remembrance, memorial, remember)  Do you think God wants to emphasize something?  So easily we forget all the goodness of Jesus and all He is to us.  In Joshua 4, as Israel was crossing over to the promised land, God commanded them to take 12 stones from the midst of the River Jordan to set up a memorial on the other side.  When their children would ask, "What are these stones?", the people of Israel were to tell their children all that God had done for them parting the river and Red Sea.  God wanted all the peoples of earth to know that the Lord God is mighty to be feared forever.  

          How could Israel ever forget the parting of the Red Sea?  The same way we forget all the Jesus is and has done!  We just plain forget in our busyness the main point of life.  Peter mentioned several times in II Peter 1:12 - 15 that as long as he lived he would remind them and stir them up to grow in their faith and be fruitful.  So yes, I will leave not only my bike sitting in the garden but other things as well.  To remind me.  To keep pressing on in thanksgiving to God.                                K.C.

          

Winter's Moss

          

          One of winter's enjoyments in the garden is the mosses that grow.  They are so intricate and  lush,  revealing some of God's detailed creativity.  The varieties and contrasts on even one fence board are amazing!  Our Creator God is an incredible artist and shows us, literally,  in millions of ways His glory.  How can He carefully make beautiful mosses and at the same time care for the entire universe He created?  Our God demonstrates His care and His presence everyday.  He wants to meet us each day.

          You have heard the little sayings, "A rolling stone gathers no moss."  "No moss grows under her."  There can be different meanings in these little sayings, negative or positive, depending on moss being good or bad.  I have heard them in connection with the encouragement to keep moving and busy so that you will accomplish much.  In this little analogy, though, I want to illustrate the opposite.  

          God tells us to be still and know Him.  Unless we learn (and it does take learning this habit) to 

be still in God's presence we cannot know Him.  Reading Psalm 37 this week has me thinking about the connection of "fretting" and "moss".  A fretful person is always agitated,wiggling, moving, chafing, worrying, wearing.  The Hebrew meaning of fret has the idea of growing warm and burning, or becoming angry about something.  This implies the thought that you are impatient that the thing you want is not happening quickly enough.  God wants our "thing" to be Him.  In my little analogy,
moss is a good thing, revealing I am sitting still long enough in God's presence to grow "moss".  God is growing all kinds of things in my soul, enriching and strengthening and blessing it.  He takes the "fret" from me and replaces it with calm trust, peace and joy, patience and gratefulness for His intricate love and care.  And He does it while I am "still" in His presence.

          Moss is really lush and beautiful against the dreariness of winter.  It grows in the most unexpected places delighting the eyes.  That's what I want in my soul during the trials and labors of life.  To grow beautiful in the presence of my Lord Jesus delighting His eyes.                       K.C.

Bones of the Garden

 







     

   

            It's winter out there.  Not much gardening going on.  They say that you can tell a lot about your garden in the winter.  The bones of your garden are exposed, the structure, the foundation, the design plan that everything hinges on.  When spring and summer come, all is glorious color and texture, filling the beds with beauties of multi-colored flowers, spilling over the edges of paths.  You don't see the bones in the summer when all things are colorful and gorgeous.  The time to see what a garden is really made of is in the winter.  It is then you can make changes and redesign bits of your garden.

           You can tell a lot about the bones of your spiritual life, also, in the wintertime.  When trials come or when days are dreary and mundane or dark, the foundation that has been laid really shows up.  It is easy to follow Jesus and be excited in the summer when all things are well and beautiful.  The real truth of your life in Jesus is revealed, though, in the winter.
   
           Foundational plants, like boxwood, small trees, grasses, or evergreens and arbors give framework for all the other plants to show their beauty throughout the seasons.  Otherwise, your garden has no order and can easily just become a mixup of multicolored plants.  It is the same in our spiritual life in Jesus.  My foundation, my spiritual bones, must be fed and nourished in Jesus through reading His Word and praying and talking to Him.  When the bones of these basic structures are built into my life, my spiritual garden has strength which will keep me through the dark winters of life.  There are seasons in spiritual life as well as in the garden.  When days are dark, stick on the basics.  God will build your soul strong and give your bones needed nourishment.  Spring will come eventually, and then He will send blossoms of beauty springing up.                                      K.C.

Who is the real helper?

                                                 

          Gardening is a never ending task that requires  lots of labor!  Always there is something to trim, cut back, burn, plant, deadhead, weed, spray, admire, train, coax and encourage.  Without helpers around here it just wouldn't happen.  Too many acres, too many weeds, too many tasks.  Without my faithful husband I simply couldn't be a gardner with this size of land.  Now our grandchildren are getting into the scene.  Reed wanted to "help" pull branches across the yard and throw them into the burn pile.  Papa graciously and slowly coached Reed in the process.  What a precious sight that melted my heart, to see Papa followed by 2 year old Reed "helping"!

          We have been studying Hebrews 11, the faith chapter in the Bible.  So often we focus on the characters in chapter 11 and their great faith.  Instead, I am suggesting that we need to focus on our Heavenly Father's gift of faith that He gives us.  We think we are "helping" God in His earthly tasks of harvest when in reality it is all about Jesus' help in our lives!  We receive grace and mercy to accept the gift of faith by believing in His work on the cross.  We receive His Holy Spirit, we receive strength, we receive gifts that enable us to serve and help.  So who is "helping" who?  

          God our Father desires our companionship, our presence, our worship.  He is so compassionate and patient toward us that He allows us to think we are "helping" Him by our service.  Papa allowed Reed the space to think he was a huge help, and that is what God does for us also.  He gives us faith, He gives us all we need to be on His team.  We so enjoyed being together with Reed and "working" together.  What a joy, what a privilege!  It melts my heart to think that God desires my companionship in such a way as this, and that He wants me on His team of helpers. Truly, Holy Spirit is our helper and will never leave us.  Now that is joy!

M & M's

                                                       

          Thinking through another new year, I asked the Lord Jesus what thoughts He had for me.  No big revelation has come to my heart.  But He has quietly spoken.  He said to guard my minutes.  Mind my minutes.  Multiply my moments.  Measure my mission.  This is largely a devotional page for thoughts from the garden, thus, the M & Ms sitting on the garden post.

          We can waste a lot of minutes each day, and those minutes are what God is addressing in my heart.  I don't know about you, but I can wile away a morning watching the garden grow.  God wants me to measure my mission, my task He has called me to.    Now I am not talking about staying busy or accomplishing more.  I am talking about minding how intentional my minutes are.  Spending minutes in awe at God's work in the garden or His marvelous creative design in birds are not wasted  minutes. It is more like He is saying to be ALL there every minute.  There is a difference between letting minutes tick away and deliberately living those minutes.  When I am consciously minding my minutes life takes on a thoroughly alive sense.  It is like intentionally living!  And that is what God is saying to me;  intentionally live for Me.                                                                                   K.C.

Hold Fast

          Hold fast!  Like the ivy holding fast to the post.  Without the post it surely wouldn't be climbing upward.  Takes a bit of patience to train ivy to go up the post, but with consistent
perseverance it takes off upward.  Sometimes a wayward tendril seeks its own path, but
eventually it either makes its way around the post or it falls downward.

          The book of Hebrews talks about holding fast the confidence and rejoicing of our hope
in Christ Jesus.  The hold Jesus has on us is powerful and life changing.  Nothing can snatch
us from His hand, nothing can separate us from His love.  John 10:28-29, Romans 8:39.  Scripture also teaches that we  hold on to Jesus through faith in Him.   I Corinthians 15:2, "hold fast that Word..."

          There are 2 holds in Psalm 63:8.  "My soul clings to you; Your right hand upholds me."  I am thinking that too often we focus on our part; I have to hold fast, I have to work, I have to press on, I have to climb that post.  Actually, the direction, the strength, motivation, the power comes from the post - the cross of Christ.  It comes through His working grace in us, showing us His goodness and glory, His sacrifice and offering to make us right with the Father.

          Jesus does so much for us through His grace that it makes our soul desire to cling to Him.  It isn't a duty, but a wonderful freeing rest and joy to cling to Him.  Jesus Christ not only saves us from our dark sin-heavy soul, but He gives our lives purpose and direction, meaning and hope.  What a joy it is to cling to the cross of Christ!  Have you ever seen ivy without a direction?  It just becomes a wandering vine that is a nuisance, taking root here and there, messing up the garden.  But give it a post or structure to grow on, and it becomes a majestic work of art in the garden!

          So hold fast the Post, hold fast to the Word, hold fast to the rejoicing of hope in Christ.
                                                                                                                                                       K.C.