Flowers and trees…

 Flowers and trees….

My cousin recently sent me a video of the acres and acres of flowers in bloom in the California foothills, where our grandparents once ranched, near Visalia, California…so colorful before a soon hot, dry summer…

I sent him back a picture of myself in those same spring foothills at age 18 months…my grandmother would take me for walks in those luscious flowers, pointing out and naming them  as we strolled around…she did that all my life with her, enjoying and teaching the beauty of our surroundings…

Not far from this ranch was the entrance to Kings canyon and sequoia National parks.  We would visit occasionally and camp, enjoying the majestic tress which stand there…my dad’s first job away from home was working in those parks…

Later we moved to Northern California on the coast in the Coast redwoods… home nestled amongst the tallest trees in the world….a nearby museum had a crosscut of one with dates pinned to tell when various world events would have happened over the age of that particular tree…makes one wonder it trees could talk, what stories they could tell…. 

I am reminded of Isaiah 55, especially verse 12, the praise of even nature…breaking forth in singing, clapping their hands…

Thank YOU…

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! 

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? 

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 

Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 

Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. 

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 

“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

Isaiah 55:1-13 

“California redwoods ( Sequoia sempervirens ) need the marine fog of the Northern California coast for growth. Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are native to the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, mostly between 5,000 and 7,000 feet in elevation. This habitat features the dry heat of the mountains that the sequoias need to survive. “ The web…

https://www.tripsavvy.com/redwood-forests-in-california-1478739

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_sempervirens