Gardens along the way....11...fruitfulness....

Gardens along the way...11...fruitfulness....

We went cherry picking the other day...what a fun, enjoyable, family, activity...fresh air, fresh fruit, sunshine, productiveness, laughter, a little mud, and buckets of sweet goodness...and few bites of juiciness along the way...

My garden is blooming...the zucchinis are blooming and some are 4 inches long, the scarlet runner beans are brilliant, the spaghetti squash are sending forth their long running tendrils filled with blooms...the blueberries are ripening, as are the peaches, nectarines, persimmons...we ate the 30 cherries before the birds descended...the tomatoes are loaded with blooms and tiny green baby tomatoes....all ready for harvest in their time...

Other gardens along my path are growing as well, the potatoes are in full bloom, the sunflowers are reaching for the sky; corn, rhubarb, onions, berry bushes; fields of wheat, mustard, potatoes, oats, beef, lamb, bison, pigs, sugar beets; orchards of apples, cherries, pears, peaches...whatever others have planted are relishing the warmth and water to prepare for the harvest to come...what feasts are awaiting so many people....

With a little work and toil, we have food...nourishment....

People are like that as well...need of tending, nourishment, encouragement, cultivation, warmth, a loving hand or hug along our path...plus the Word to feed our souls; weed out the things that stunt us, keeping us from blooming and harvest...; a Master Gardeners pruning, watering, loving us infinitely...; with a harvest of righteousness at some period in time...thank YOU for that Gardener’s touch...You love and care for each of us sooooo very much,  desiring that none should perish....You prayed for us...You sent your Counselor....You gave us Your Word...You are preparing a home, a place...You give us riches unimaginable....thank YOU...

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. 

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 2:8-10,3:14-21

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 

21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 

22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 

23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

John 17:20-23

26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 14:26 

2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:2-3,6