Grief, COVID-19, world unrest...

Grief, COVID-19, world unrest...

I was talking to an acquaintance yesterday while we were exercising.

She was so struggling with all the world happenings, jobs, family, etc, etc...

It struck me that we are grieving as a world, filled with fear of the unknown, daily changes in routines, new rules and regulations, violence unleashed by anger over so many situations...flexibility in hyperdrive...something we are dealing with differently...

It reminded me of some of the lessons from the “grief share” material..

One quote, “I feel like I am going crazy” comes to mind, or “ I don’t why I feel this way”, “ I just have no energy or drive or ______”, ....etc, etc....

Part of grief...and we all do it differently...anger, denial, work, binge eating, no appetite, tiredness, sleeplessness, tears, guilt, emotional roller coasters....it’s all there and more...

The slogans have come out from the encouragers, “We are in this together”, “ we will make it through this”...and more cross the tv screens or computers or even billboards along the way...

We want to see this through, we dream of better days, we want normal, whatever that is...we want out of this funky time...we want a life...with no restrictions, no grief, no fears...

They say that time heals...but really the ultimate healer is Jesus...people flocked to his healing touch, word or hand In times past...people the world over are still doing that ...comforter, redeemer, forgiver, master of time...peace giver, counselor, hand holder, creator, the living Word...the Way, the Light, the Life, the Lamb...the list goes on...

And people the world over are still deciding, or still rejecting...still questioning as they have for thousands of years...but He is amazing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA7pdABvpnc&fbclid=IwAR32gAi3QOKFKpRfqUhCyCnieSmZsRWRTW5kCFHNEREukWd1tEj45ON60L8

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. 

He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. 

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23:1-6 

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 3:23,6:23 

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12 

Gardens along the ways...16...postscripts....

Gardens along the way...16... postscripts....

This year as we are weathering through the storms of COVID-19 and cultural/social/political unrest, I have walked my neighborhoods in different directions....I have sunny routes for cooler days, shady routes for  hotter days...

I started this journey, just happy to finally get outside, viewing the spring as it progressed in varying degrees, growth in lives..not staying stagnant...getting rid of weeds in my lives, pulling out the refuse, cleaning out my heart...

Thankfulness of the beauty in so many ways that God has provided, even the abundance of garden produce and zucchinis...the hellos of strangers who walk the paths, the exercise and fresh air He has provided...the reminders of gardens past...the work in cultivation of life...

The “wildlife” that is so important, the bees, the birds and even the insects...

Fruitfulness...both in the gardens and life...

The thankfulness of years past...the gardens in countries visited for which I am so thankful...the gardens along the railways in China;the hillside terrace fields, worn paths from hundreds of years of cultivation by hand, no machinery in sight, pure man power;  the hidden garden of a Chinese grandma, among the tight quarters of the Hutongs of western China; the gardens in Australia, New Zealand, South America, Central America...exotic flowers and familiar ones as well; the fertile hills and valleys of Israel...land of milk and honey; the New England fall in it brilliant colors; the vast wheat fields across the heartland of America; the cotton fields of the south; the vegetable and fruit “basket” of California; tasting the fresh boiled salted peanuts from a peanut stand; the Hawaii luaus; the Mongolian winter vegetable cuisine; fresh Alaska salmon, barbecued on the beach; Maine lobster fresh from the bay; French tea in Quebec; ....the millions of pictures my mind stores of life , family, of gardens along the way...

The continual feast of the Word, the pictures, the words, the lessons of the Word which never grows old...a garden for the mind and soul...the cultivation, the weeding, the promises, the comfort, the encouragement, the songs to feed my spirit...thank YOU...for so very much...the gardens along the way...

Genesis 1...and it was good...

Psalm 119...

The whole Word...

 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 

Gardens along the way...15...zucchinis...

Gardens along the way...15...zucchinis....

Lock your car doors quickly... before someone fills your car with their extra zucchinis...the garden is overflowing, the refrigerator is full...now someone is trying to pawn their abundance on some unsuspecting soul ...and more zucchinis are coming...

As a child we didn’t grow zucchinis in our garden, and we didn’t eat them because we didn’t grown them...(we raised vegetables that could be canned for frozen for winter use)...it wasn’t until my twenties that they entered our family’s diet...and then it was zucchini bread, zucchini cake, zucchini chocolate cake(the best), then it evolved into summer squash casserole, ratatouille, hiding zucchini in anything...enchiladas, soup, whatever...now we’ve added more and more recipes, roasted, sautéed, etc...a versatile vegetable like we added cauliflower rice to everything....

My zucchini plants this year are producing an abundance of their long green fruit...I have given them away, grated, sliced, diced, noodled, chunked them, stuffed them, sautéed them, pickled them, roasted them...and they just keep on giving...for that I am grateful....

Something positive...in a year of turmoil....

God gave Adam and Eve the garden, provided provisions for the boat for Noah, He later provided manna in the desert walk from Egypt to the land of promise for 40 years, gave them a land that they hadn’t seen or planted, fed Elijah, Jesus fed the multitudes...

He has provided all over the world the foods that the people eat, whether bananas in the tropics, grains in the the plains, rice in the paddies, meat of various kinds...He has provided for our bodies...we may work for it, harvest it, weed it, plant it...but He still gave it as a gift for our nourishment...He knows our need...

I have been watching a food show of a well known chef traveling the world,  finding the foods that the various ethnic groups eat...what a vast variety...what creativity our Creator has provided...from the sea and land...the harvests they find and cultivate...

I am so glad we have a Father who knows our needs, provides with his creativity food for our bodies and Food for our souls through His Word...we do not live by bread alone, but by the very Word of God...

Thank YOU...

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. ” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:11-12 

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 8:3 

11 Give us today our daily bread.

Matthew 6:11 

Gardens along the way...14...surprises...

Gardens along way...14...surprises...

When I started “gardens along the way” in April, three months ago, I didn’t realize that it was to be a continuing saga...a surprise...

I guess in reality, when I started blogging several years ago, that in itself was a surprise...I never imagined in my wildest dreams that it was so healing, so scary, that it would be read around the world, that people would respond so encouragingly, that I would publish a book from it, that people would actually read it, that it was a way to speak for a very quiet and private person....but, oh, how vulnerable you become...

This year has become a year of surprises...gardens along the way, just a a minute one of them...no traveling,  worldwide pandemic, “social distancing”, using cyberspace more, self quarantining, buying groceries online, shopping and business closures, record unemployment, more rules and regulations, care for needy and most vulnerable more acute, cancellations of events, creative celebrations, loss of loved ones, more time for introspection, more awareness of social injustices, cultural changes, one unexpected surprise after another...flexibility, openness, love, encouragement, gratefulness, appreciation key words...

My walks to keep moving, to keep sane, to explore, to exercise have taken in repeated routes, new routes, saying “hi” to others, maybe even stopping and talking to strangers about their lives, their gardens, life...surprises...

God has given me glimpses of new things, new lessons...surprises...

Pictures of ground chucks/marmots feasting on free “gardens” in nearby  pastures.....a group of chukars walking across a subdivision street, sitting on small trailer....baby ducks or quail walking across my 

path....beautiful flowers, vegetable gardens...sunrises and sunsets...all surprises...all gifts, granted by a creative Creator...large and small things, intricately, magnificently made...

New friendships, continued friendships, new skills or practice of old...new goals accomplished, another year quickly receding...surprises...

Surprises to me along the way...gardens along the way...thank YOU...

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 

I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.

Psalm 118:29,119:15 

Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Psalm 62:8

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die, 

a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

a time to kill and a time to heal, 

a time to tear down and a time to build, 

a time to weep and a time to laugh, 

a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 

a time to search and a time to give up, 

a time to keep and a time to throw away, 

a time to tear and a time to mend, 

a time to be silent and a time to speak, 

a time to love and a time to hate, 

a time for war and a time for peace. 

What do workers gain from their toil? 

I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. 

He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 

That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 

I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. 

God does it so that people will fear him.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-14 

The comet...

The comet...

Last night I was determined to wait up to view the comet...too many trees...finally watched on explore.org, but then I awoke early this morning to finally see it ....looks like a hole, leaking out the  brightness of heaven...

Sitting there in the somewhat silence of the late night, looking toward the heavens is always a lesson on how tiny, minuscule  we really...we are hardly a dot in the vastness in the universe ....yet we are so loved...because God’s Word tells us so....

Oh , in my life time we have orbited the earth, walked on the moon, sent rockets into space to report and picture, sent satellites to space for various jobs, worked on sending rockets to Mars, maintain space stations, discovered and seen galaxies from afar...thinking we have conquered the universe...but I imagine we have barely scratched the surface, nor will we completely understand it as we do not have the mind of God...His is infinite and ours is so finite ...He is there in all and we are but a vapor for a time...He is the Creator, we are the creations....

Thank YOU....

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

Psalm 8:3-4 

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. 

For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

Psalm 33:6,9

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 

God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 

God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning —the first day. 

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” 

And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. 

He also made the stars. 

God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. 

And God saw that it was good. 

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

Genesis 1:1-5,14-18,2:1

To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.

Deuteronomy 10:14

You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

Nehemiah 9:6 

“Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, “What is the way to the abode of light? 

And where does darkness reside? 

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?

Job 38:12,19,31-33

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

Psalm 36:5,9 

Gardens along the way...13...sunflowers

Gardens along the way...13 ...sunflowers...

Eleven years ago, I was driving my parents north through the central California valley. North of Sacramento, we were speeding by field upon field of sunflowers, all facing the sun...finally, I said I have to get off the freeway and take some pictures...so we did...

I know I have written about this stop in the past...relating that these flowers followed the sun through the day...soooooo, the fields of sunflowers were all facing the same way...looking toward their light, warmth, their center...just as we should be doing with the Son...Jesus...keeping our focus on Him...

Now as I walk, I am seeing the gardens, not miles of fields, but sunflowers here and there, different faces, different heights, different colors, newly planted, older plantings, wild, planned, bird planted, human planted...a mixture....some face the sun, while others look in other directions...not consistent...none the same....

Does this sound familiar?   Maybe a little like mankind... it seems like less and less are facing the Son...many looking in all different directions to get their sustenance, their center, their light...

                                                                                    

There is this one plant in particular that has no direction...it is all over the place, looking in a variety of ways...one central stem, but going many ways....

Now this could be a picture of Christians. One source and a variety of manifestations of giftings...but, it could be no central direction...fun to contemplate...

This one was not planted by the gardener, a surprise...a new uninvited guest in the planter...oh well, we get surprises, new direction, new chapters in our stories...so why not let it grow and feed the birds, who probably brought it...God’s plan for that spot...

       

The loner....this poor guy stood alone amongst the vines, the entanglements...proud to show his colors, 

Speaking his piece against the crowd....

Look at the colors, the brightness....we can enjoy the beauty, intricacies all the while it is changing into a bounty, a feast for the birds...God who cares for the birds, cares for us...of much more value...

How fun it is to see God’s creation all around, the sunflowers, the variety....

This year as I am kept closer to home, I am not seeing the glories of Israel, the tropics, of monuments  of historical reference...but have enjoyed the gardens along the way, as I walk my miles, seeing yet again God’s provision, His creativity...taking in His lessons for me...not grumbling about the confinement, but trying to look on the bright side, the encouragement right outside my back door...trying to be content in the lessons close at hand....thank YOU...

I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.

Psalm 7:17

I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.

Psalm 118:21

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

From snake to a 7 headed dragon....

From snake to a 7 headed dragon...

When I was still young enough for naps, I remember my mother awakening me, bringing me out of the house to see a particular sight...a large rattlesnake who had invaded her flower beds...my mom wielding a shovel had deheaded it after it rattled and tried to defend itself...

Mom didn’t awaken me to show her killing the snake, she awakened me to show me the threat, the enemy, the danger of this particular snake and ones like him...”stay away from these”...was her wise warning...beware lest he strike....and bite...to this day I don’t like snakes in any form...our family is very aware of them on their properties...from Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee...although some are “good” ones, eating rodents and pests...there are some dangerous ones, waiting to defend, attack and bite .....

This was brought to mind as lately when my women’s Bible study was studying through the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelations...chapter 12:1-17..where the author John talks about the dragon...Satan’s power, partners and purposes....

Thinking back, we first see Satan in the first book of the Bible, Genesis...trying to entice Adam and Eve in the garden...misquoting 

God, turning, twisting, controlling, enticing them away from their loving Creator...succeeding in his plan for a time...the victor, the ruler is this world, deceiving, lying...he was there and continues to do the same subtleties down through the ages, relentless in strategy...pull as many away from God as he can...defeated, ever prowling but not the final destruction until God ordains it...which we see in the book of Revelations.

That picture from a snake to a dragon...kept popping into my mind...we let little sins, disobedience’s slowly grow until they are “overpowering “ from the snake to the dragon...

One wrong decision followed by another and another, until we have given over entirely to the enemy...one lie leads to another and another...growing from the snake to the dragon...

In Genesis, the Word speaks of Satan’s end and in Revelations it shows his final defeat...what victory...but the victory is there all the time...defeated by the Word...defeated by Christ’s resurrection...we have  God’s promises...the armor...

Satan is relentless from generation to generation, but God more so...God desires that none perish, He pursues us with his kindness, He desires that all  believe in is His Son, Christ...thank YOU....

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:7 

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

1 John 4:4 

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

1 Peter 5:8-9 

Isaiah 54:17

Ephesians 6:11-17

Romans 8:37

1 Corinthians 15:57

Zechariah 4:6

2 Thessalonians 3:3

19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

Luke 10:19

John 10:10

Matthew 18:18-19

Deuteronomy 28:7

John 16:33

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11