garden – INSPIRATION with an ATTITUDE

Hand me the wrench…no the other one.

My brother and I were just reminiscing about coming home from school and seeing our grandfather in the heat of the day, stripped to the waist and sporting a bandana to catch the sweat dripping from his forehead, (and what was left of his grey hair), out mowing the lawn. He and Grandma had been visiting our family, and he was not one to merely luxuriate when there was work to be done.

And why not? I mean, c’mon, he was only in his 70’s…

Owning property is a never-ending lifestyle, to be sure, and if you’re like Bob and I, whose only claim to fame is the ability to change a light bulb, then it becomes even more challenging. I did try to hang wallpaper—once. (For the record, of the two of us, I tend to be the one who tries to “fix” something first, whereas my husband with all the letters behind his name doesn’t even bother….just call the plumber.)

The truth is, they—the carpenters, the plumbers, the electricians and the lot—they know that they’re doing. I’ve seen them at work. It’s really impressive, you know, where there was no wall, now there’s a wall, with windows and lights and paint. Or maybe new carpet. Or a vaulted ceiling. And, once the tools are put away and the dust has cleared, if I do as I’m instructed to take care of it, it should all last a long time.

Wow!

Here the Hebrew nation is about the kick up some serious dust as they go into the Promised Land. Moses is recapping their past few decades:

“But you have seen the LORD perform all these mighty deeds with your own eyes! Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter.”

I see an interesting sequence here.

To begin with, this is addressed specifically to people who had first hand experience. They had witnessed God’s provision and His “mighty deeds”. With that knowledge came responsibility—

The responsibility, then, was obedience to the One who had allowed them to witness those miracles. In other words, the experience of His presence was an act of grace that not everyone (up to that point in time) had been privy to. And every act of grace carries with it the weight of personal responsibility.

Lastly, obedience to God, although a worthy end in itself, was also a means to an additional provision: strength. Like taking care of my property, it takes a certain amount of vigor to maintain (dare I say “conquer”?) the challenges of home ownership; I can only imagine what it must have been like going into the Promised Land. So I find that the people’s strength to conquer and maintain was uniquely tied to their obedience to God.

Hmmmm….

Okay, time to do some never-ending work in the garden. (At least I can to that much without having to call in a plumber.)

Deuteronomy 11:7,8 Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Preserving more than berries

My first attempts at gardening several years ago were pretty funny. The bunnies, as much as I love them, kept helping themselves to my tender tomato plants. I’d come out to check my little lovelies, and DRAT! There went another one! So I started to concoct various creative boundaries and kept replanting. I even tried that trick of putting a garden hose around the area so the furry thumpers would think there was a snake lurking about.

It was less than effective, except to amuse Bob, who christened the area my DMZ.

My friend, Louise, has a garden. I mean, a real garden. My garden is more of an adult re-living her childhood of playing in the dirt. Louise and her husband—they actually know what they’re doing.

When they moved in a few years ago, there was no Continue reading “Preserving more than berries”

Bring on the birds!

I tend to frequent my garden patio in the early morning, as will become repetitively apparent in subsequent entries. I appreciate the quiet of my rural, small town setting. I love to hear the birds wake up and start singing. I also enjoy actually seeing the birds I am hearing. I’m learning them little by little, with my color picture book close by, to recognize a few species, including by the music they make. My husband and I are true bird-admirers. Not real bird-watchers, mind you; the true Audubons are the ones that can confidently identify, say, a loggerhead shrike from a Northern shrike…and enjoy it. But I do, at least, like to be able to see those who are gracing my morning with their songs. I have learned that, generally, to attract birds, you must have a bird-attracting environment. They are all around me, because I can hear them, even if I can’t immediately see them. But to seriously bring them into view I must entice them with something they want.

Many of my patio variety songsters are not particularly picky eaters, thankfully. A fifty-pound bag from the local feed store does nicely, especially for sparrows and junkos and an occasional cowbird or catbird. However, I have learned that certain species are encouraged to frequent my garden depending on what I choose to put out. Cardinals like their black-oil sunflower seeds. Finches love the seeds on my dry coneflowers. Hummingbirds go for red. Downey woodpeckers prefer the suet in the hanging cage. And grackles, well, I guess they eat anything, and a whole lot of it!

What I also find noteworthy is how these fabulous creatures find their way to the food. It is such a natural, unfeigned, unpretentious process. The more I set out, the more they come around. And even if I don’t get around to filling the feeders, and maybe there are only a few kernels just left lying around a pile of empty hulls, they still seem attracted to it, pushing through the junk to find the valuable seeds. But the converse is also true. No food, few birds. For them to stay around in abundance, and close enough for thorough enjoyment and study, they must be welcomed and wanted, and they must be drawn.

With all respect, the Holy Spirit is a bit, just a bit mind you, the same way. As we provide the proper enticements (like faith), and make Him feel welcome (like humility), He comes more into view, becomes easier to see, and His ways are easier to identify. And why? Because what God is interested in most is the environment of my heart:

He looks deep within my human soul, the real me, the sometimes (oft times) hidden me, and invites me to come and take a good look with Him, since most of us are not even fully aware of what’s really going on in there anyway. And though He sees the “me” in my entire self, and though He recognizes so much beauty that could be, yet He patiently waits and constrains Himself, for even God must be invited, welcomed and wanted. One of the Old Testament songwriters put it this way, “I sought Your favor with all my heart;
Be gracious to me according to Your word…” (1)

Although God is everywhere at once, yet He makes it clear that we get His attention by a humble heart, and a prayer of faith, even if it’s just a little faith mixed with a whole bunch of questions. It’s an easy and common deception to think that we are too far gone, too messed up, or have too little faith for God work His wonderful restorative power in our lives. A little faith is still faith, a powerful entity in God’s kingdom, even if it’s mixed with a bunch of empty husks known as doubt and the used up hulls we call fear. God is just powerful enough to dig through our questions and circumstances to find the little seeds of faith in our prayers and our lives, even when we ourselves aren’t aware of their existence. (2)

The proud heart, on the other hand, the one that says it does not need God, that refuses to agree with God’s assessment of the situation and His answer to the problem, (possibly because it refuses to acknowledge that there IS a problem), this heart the Holy Spirit grieves over, since there is nothing to bid Him welcome, nothing to make Him feel wanted. (3)

My early morning “patio compadres” make my garden more than just a quiet place to sip my tea while the rest of the town wakes up. Not only do I love having them around for their beauty and song, but they are part of the very livelihood of my garden! So does God’s Holy Spirit infuse His life into the garden of my life. Every day is another opportunity to invite Him into my world, my mind, and circumstances, and my heart.

Then I can sit back, and listen for His song.