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Sunday, April 4, 2021
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
March isn’t just for the Irish; anyone can appreciate
the earth’s “wearin’ o’ the green.” Putting on the mantle is an obvious part of
spring—leaves and grasses turning into various shades of emerald, jade, lime,
and olive. Most of us give only a cursory consideration to the plant life that
graces the earth. We might appreciate the carpeted beauty of grass, the shade a
tree provides, or the blossoms they produce, and then we leave it at that. Even
diehard gardeners may not stop to reflect upon the deepest treasure replete in
the plants they cultivate. Yet if we remember a basic biology lesson regarding
the wonderful life-giving purpose of plants and trees, we see them in a renewed
light.
They take a little
sunshine, a few carbon dioxide molecules out of the air, some hydrogen atoms
out of water, and then shuffle them around inside green chloroplasts in the
plant cells, and voila! We get their products of
glucose and oxygen, two necessary components to our existence.
In God’s
marvelous ecological economy, green plants, and trees were created as our
necessary counterpart—they breathe in the carbon dioxide we make and exhale the
oxygen we need. Martin Luther said, “In the true nature of things . . . every
green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”
If I see some
people hugging trees or watering even weeds, I know they appreciate how
precious our green earth is.
The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly, the cedars
of Lebanon that he planted
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Worth the Wait
Spring is coming! The proof is seen in
buds peeking out from seemingly barren limbs, brown landscapes yielding their
somber hues to green, and blossoms suddenly bursting alive with all the colors
of the Master Painter’s palette. The evidence of renewal is showing clearly and
making the case—spring is coming around again.
I find it hard to imagine that only a
short time ago, the same world looked rather dull and lifeless. Yet in the dark
reaches of soil and branch, seeds were preparing for their seasonal debut. In a
world filled with desire for instant gratification, we are usually more
interested in the finished product than in the preparation. This brings back
pleasant memories of my grandmother.
Grandma had an orchard that produced
about every kind of fruit one could imagine. At harvest time, she would call us
each Sunday morning and say, “Come out and get a pie, I have some cooling in
the window.”
It was so easy just to go and pick up
a warm, juicy pie for our dessert. Eventually, as I learned about the process
of making those pies, I gained a whole new perspective about them.
First, Grandma gathered the fruit from
the orchard, peeled and pitted it, if needed, and washed it. Then, in the wee
hours of Sunday morning, she would get up, stoke the kitchen stove with wood,
mix and roll out the dough, pat it into the pie pans, fill them with a mixture
of fruit, sugar, and flour, dot the sweetness with butter, place the top dough
over it all, brush each with milk or more butter, and then put the creations in
the oven to bake.
The precious time she spent in making
the pies was the most wonderful ingredient in the gift. Each apple, peach, or raspberry pie (my favorite) was filled with
love. When I considered the whole process, the pies became even more delicious
in my heart.
And it is the same with spring—the
preparation is part of the gift. Time is the necessary element in every process
of growth; learning to appreciate that makes us savor the end result all the
more. Spring is worth the wait.
. . .for behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing[a] has come ~
Song of Solomon 2:11-12
Excerpt from “Seasons in the Garden” – a look at the parallels in our
seasons of life and those of nature - www.amzn.com/0996838007
Monday, February 15, 2021
Friday, February 12, 2021
“Love Letters”
You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on
our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter
from
Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the
Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human
hearts.
~ 2 Corinthians 3:2-3
Love letters have changed. Once written by hand on fine
stationery, now they come in all kinds of digital forms. But one kind of love
letter will never go out of style. It’s the one Paul spoke about in his epistle
to the Corinthians. “You yourselves are our letter. . .from Christ. . .written
not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God.”
All people are “letters” of some kind, conveying “messages”
to others, expressed in words and deeds. As Christians we are letters too. What
do others “read” from our speech and behavior? Do they see us as “love letters”
of Christ or something not befitting the love He gave for all people? When we
lay claim to Christ, we are making ourselves “known and read by all,” as His
representatives. “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through
us.” (2 Corinthians 5:20)
As God’s “living letters,” He is using us to appeal to those
who do not know Him, so they will want to know Him too. He’s also appealing to
other believers to see Christ’s love living in us, an encouragement in their
journey of faith. If we show the love of Christ through the overflow of the
Spirit inked in our hearts, we will be “living love letters” to everyone we
meet.
Has someone ever been a “love letter” of Christ to you? How
can you show what the Spirit has inked on your heart to someone today?
This is an excerpt from my new book - "My Faithbook Messages--Devotions to Like and Share." Here's the link to it; take a look: