Category: Winter

When God lets us rest

A Mouse in the House

I was watching tv the other night when a mouse ran across the hardwood floor in front of me. I froze. My blood pressure skyrocketed, and I felt my heart in my throat. Disgust gripped me over this two-inch mammal. It had to go.

For years I had cats. To be fair, I probably had mice then too, but the cats kept them at bay. When my last cat passed away at nineteen, I chose to replace my living room floors and furniture instead of replacing her. I finally have a fur and scratch free living room, but I also have a mouse.

I put out those friendly traps that supposedly poison the rodents, but this one seems immune. (At least I hope it is only one, although that sounds naïve.) I put out the ‘humane kill’ boxes and baited them to no avail. Every day I looked for signs of its presence and cleaned more of my kitchen, my closets, any potential hiding place.

And still, I would catch glimpses of it running down the hall, triggering my panic response. At night, my dreams would be nightmares of mice. (If only a nutcracker prince would kill them all!)

I finally laid down those sticky pads in multiple corners and around all the bait traps. It worked, but slowly. What a horrible way to die. Despite my aversion to rodents, I felt sorry that it had to die that way, stuck in place. But nothing else worked. And it had to go. For my sanity; for the cleanliness and sanctity of my home.

Do you think God looks at our sin that way?

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family. Proverbs 6:16-19.

Do you think He tries to rid His house of these things? Not just his church, but me, one of the houses where His Spirit lives? When I look at another with ‘haughty eyes,’ with disdain and contempt, does His pulse race and His stomach turn? When I ‘embellish the truth,’ does He set out traps to catch me in my lies? And when I ‘outsmart God’ in His attempts to humanely rid my life of sinful ways, is He left only painful and miserable ways to get rid of them?

I hope that I can be diligent in cleaning out my internal closets and cupboards. I pray that God will show me the evidence, the signs of sin’s presence in my life. And having seen my actions through God’s eyes, I pray God gives me the strength to keep my sin at bay.

My apologies if you are one of those people who decorate for Christmas with cute little stuffed mice dressed in holiday garb. I know at some level that mice are just doing what they do, that they enter my home for warmth and food and safety from hawks. But this is not the place for them. My home will not be a sanctuary for mice.

And my life will not be a sanctuary for sin and demons. I want my life to reflect God’s love for me, for you. I, like those football players, want to say. “First, all glory goes to God our savior.” I want to get rid of my sin for my sanity, for the cleanliness and sanctity of my home.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in a way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24.

I may get a cat in the spring. I could use help keeping the rodents out of my home. I thank God for the Holy Spirit to help me keep the sins out.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Planting Garlic

I planted my garlic this past weekend. It’s got me thinking about the seeds we plant in the “off season,” when all the focus is elsewhere.

December is a time when I am consumed with gatherings – family, friends, every group of which I am a part gathers this time of year. Ostensibly to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ, but usually just for the opportunity to dress up and gather, eat, drink, and perhaps exchange gifts. It’s a time to celebrate here and now, our family and friends. Anything beyond the here and now tends to focus on the past, childhood memories, family traditions.

The church calls this time Advent, the coming, and encourages us to look forward. We are asked to prepare ourselves in anticipation of the wonders God is about to perform. He planted a seed, the unformed nucleus of God enfolded into a perishable body, which grew into a man and lived among us for thirty-some years. He gave us a small child who changed the world, whose Spirit continues to change the world.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the father’s only son, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

This is the week when I put away the pumpkins and fall colors and bring out the red and green. (I know, some of you are far ahead of me on this task.) And, in the middle of this, I planted garlic bulbs that I won’t dig up until summer.

Garlic cloves need to be planted after the first frost and before the ground is frozen solid. Like many bulbs, they need to spend a season underground in the cold, storing up nutrients and preparing themselves to grow. Unlike my sugar snaps and tomatoes, I need to plant garlic long before its growing season. I plant in the cold looking forward to the hot sun and lazy days of summer.

God planted a seed in my heart as well when I was cold-hearted and consumed with my immediate needs and wants. That seed took a long time to bear fruit in me. Now I think of the seeds that I have planted, that I am planting in my own life and in the lives of those around me. It may seem pointless, burying a seed in the cold and dark and trusting that God will transform it into fruit for His kingdom. But that is how seeds work.

Amid all our celebrating and gathering and living our lives, we can take a moment to plant a seed, a seed of love, a seed of kindness, a seed of connection. We can trust that God can transform that seed into a relationship with Him, even if we never see it or know of it.

This is Advent, the coming of Christ into the world. Not only as a one-time event two thousand years ago, but also as a daily event here and now. Christ comes to live with us, within us, within those around us. Perhaps all that is needed to sense His presence in the world is for us to take a moment and plant a seed.

You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. 1 Peter 1:23.

I hope to plant more than garlic this Advent season. I hope to plant love. I hope God uses me to answer someone’s prayer. I pray that another will see how much God loves them through my words and actions.

Gather in celebration this Advent. Gather in love and plant some seeds.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Lenten Seeds

Dirt cakes my nails and sweat drips down my face as I toss the last of the seeds in the narrow furrow. Days of warmer temperatures bring me outside to plant the sugar snap seeds. The dark brown soil welcomes the seeds as they roll into dips and settle into tiny valleys.

Suddenly, winter is ending and spring is on her way. The robins dance in the yard and tiny green scapes sprout from my garlic bulbs. February snow and a late Easter have lulled me into thinking winter would never end. But now the blue skies hold promise. Spring is coming.

I cover the seeds with dirt and lay wire over them to keep the birds away. As soon as the seeds sprout, I will remove the protective wire, but that is weeks away. First the little seeds must sit in the dark ground and let God transform them.

This year, because Easter is so late, the planting of these seeds coincides with Lent. Somehow, the resting of the seeds in the quiet darkness seems appropriate. We think of Lent as a time to give up something, to deny ourselves, to wrestle with our personal demons. But God calls us to that every day (Luke 9:23). Perhaps Lent is better seen as a time spent apart from the world, in the wilderness, in the dark and lonely soil. Because that is where transformation takes place.

Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:24-25.

Those seeds that prefer the sunshine, the company of other seeds in the packet, and the orderliness of a display rack at the garden center, those seeds will never bear fruit. Those seeds which refuse to get dirty and sit alone in darkness will never transform into healthy plants.

Perhaps that is what Jesus means with his words. It is when we can step away from our clean and orderly lives, when we can spend time away from all our pleasurable diversions, and when we can deny ourselves the comfort of the known, that God gives us a better life.

Perhaps all He wants is for me to seek His approval rather than everyone else’s. Perhaps He wants me to be transformed by His presence and not by the world around me. Perhaps the only way I can become more than a seed is by sitting alone with Him.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 2:12.

So, for Lent this year, I going to spend time alone with God, intentionally, daily. I’m going to die to the world around me for a set period of time and spend that time with God. I’ve said it, now I must do it.

I want to be a seed that becomes a fruit bearing vine. I want God to give me the strength to deny myself and win the battle with my demons. I want my words to betray that I spend time with Jesus. (Matthew 26:73)

Are you planting any seeds this Lent? Are you preparing for the coming Spring?

Are you willing to sit alone with God in the quiet darkness and let Him transform you?

But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:6.

I would ask you to join me, but this is something you must do on your own.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Potential

I hold seeds in my hand. Within them there is the potential to be tall green plants covered in white blossoms and dangling pea pods.

Potential. Growing up, I hated that word. Embedded in the compliment, I heard the complaint. I could do something, but I wasn’t. If I just apply myself, work a little harder, invest a little more, I could become the person they thought I could and should be. But obviously I wasn’t doing that, and I wasn’t the person they wanted me to be. I was, instead, a slacker.

My sense was that they were looking at a sugar snap seed and wanting me to produce tomatoes. Perhaps that is unfair. Perhaps they were just looking at a seed and wanting it to grow.

Here’s the lesson of the seed, though. Me wanting the seed to grow, and it having the potential to grow, does not make it grow. I cannot make that happen. The seed cannot make that happen. Only God can.

We have roles to play. If the seed is not good, or not a sugar snap seed, it will not produce sugar snaps. If I do not put it in the ground and water it, it will not transform. If I do not support the vine’s growth or protect it from predators, the harvest will be damaged. The garden is a cooperative effort between God and me, between nature and the seed.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.

The seed is not enough, even if it has potential. And my desire for the seed cannot transform it into what I want it to be. God, through the amazing architecture of nature, has embedded a nucleus of a fruit-bearing plant in this seed. He alone gives it the power to become all that it has the potential to be.

God has embedded the nucleus of a fruit-bearing soul in me and you. We can help or hinder the transformation of that seed into a healthy, loving, spirit-filled life, but we can’t make it happen. Not by the will of man.

We need to put that seed of ourselves into the hands of God. He alone knows what we have the potential to be.

And this seed is one of hundreds. I will plant all of them. Hopefully, all of them will be transformed into fruit-bearing vines. Often, when we talk about God’s will for our lives, our purpose, we think we have a unique role. We don’t want to be like everyone else. We want to be special. That is pride, my friend. While every snowflake is unique, it takes thousands of snowflakes to carpet the ground in white.

A garden succeeds when multiple plants bring forth the same fruit.

What would our world look like if hundreds or thousands of us stood together and were loving and kind and peaceful? What if wide swaths of us were patient and gentle and joyful?

The Holy Spirit can produce that fruit in us. That is our true potential. We have been given the power to be children of God. God wants us to be a beautiful garden of healthy trees planted beside the river, bearing fruit continuously, and healing the nations (Revelations 22).

I think that is what God sees when he holds the seed of us in His hands. He sees our potential.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Stay Alert

I love my gurgling creek, and I love God’s gift of rain. But on days like this, when the rain pounds on the roof and the creek roars as it rushes past, I need to stay alert.

I live in a flood plain. The lovely creeks that meet in my backyard can become a raging river that surrounds my house. It happens about every ten years. The last flood was in 2021, so I am not due for one, but God loves to throw curve balls, so I need to stay alert.

I can’t stop the creek from flooding, but I can minimize the impact. Most everything in my garage is elevated, out of harm’s way. But during the dry spells, things accumulate on the garage floor. On a day like today, I take things to the attic, put things on tables, and move things off the floor.

The first year I lived here, thirty-plus years ago, I was unaware of what living in a flood plain meant. The seller assured us the creek hadn’t flooded in the ten years he lived here. Then my new neighbor called to let me know my kid’s cozy coupe was floating downstream, along with all the other riding toys, and my trash cans. I think that’s called a learning experience.

I have installed new garage doors since 2021, when the food waters poured through the cat door and totaled my prius parked there. These doors are supposed to be strong enough to resist the push of water and have no cat door. Hopefully, they will keep the water out of my garage even if the creek is out of its banks. Maybe I will find out today.

Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:36.

I must confess I am not alert at all times. I am alert when it rains for several days in a row, or when the clouds drop massive amounts of rain in a short period of time. I become aware when situations alert me to my complacency. The hours of rain push me to move the boxes into the attic where they belong. The ponding water in the yard motivates me to move the grandkids’ toys onto the patio.

Sometimes it takes stormy weather to wake me up. Someone I haven’t quite forgiven shows up unexpectedly. My child challenges some long-held opinions. Failure makes me examine who I am trusting. Storms are like that. They make you take another look around your garage and see if you have left things on the floor. They open your eyes to things God wants you to see.

My brothers and sisters, when you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect, so that you many be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4.

So, I am considering this rainy day a joy. It has forced me to pick up my garage. The rushing water has cleaned the debris from the edges of the creek. The underground reserves are full of life-giving water which will soon transform seeds into plants and bring forth blossoms. Rain is a gift from God. Perhaps all storms are. Even the destructive ones.

They wake us up. They put us on alert. They make us examine what we can do and what only God can do. They force us to address who we are trusting – ourselves or God.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock, The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25.

Put on your high-water rain boots and join me standing on the rock.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Preparation

I took advantage of our brief window of warm weather Saturday to prepare the garden for sugar snaps. These lovely plants grow too tall for the tomato cages. Laden with fruit, they bend and fall to the ground instead of reaching for the sun.

Once the peas are planted and the cages set over them, I can attach the strings to the cages and let the vines climb them. Of course, I may need the ladder to pick the fruit! Right now it looks like some weird decoration gone wrong.

I may need more strings when the plants are growing. It’s difficult to anticipate, even after having grown sugar snaps for years. There’s always an insecurity that I have done too little or wasted my time doing something not needed at all.

The pictures in the catalogue seduced me again and I ordered lavender plants for the front of my house. When Nick was alive to tend to the vegetables, I tended to the flowers in front of the house. Now that I am tending the vegetables, the flower garden has become rather drab. I may have overcommitted myself (again!), but I needed to order the sugar snap seeds and once I was on the site…  If you give a gardener a seed packet, they’re going to want a root ball.

There are steps that need to happen now in preparation for a garden that will be planted later. There is a garden that needs to be planted in order to have home grown vegetables and blooming flowers later.

A garden, like life, is not instantaneous. To be successful, you need to plan, and you need to prepare. This is a simple truth most of us understand. We learned it by taking tests in elementary school. We learned it on costume day and picture day.

Do we know this about our spiritual journey?

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom, Five of them were foolish and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with the lamps. Matthew 25:1-4.

The wise ones were prepared. They had brought flasks of oil with them. They had strung a trellis for the vines to climb. They had bought the seeds and plants. They had memorized the scriptures. They had learned to hear the still small voice of God.

Are you prepared to meet your maker? The question may make us smirk and roll our eyes, but the question is a real one. Are you? Are you prepared?

What does that even mean to you?

For me, it means that I am letting His Spirit review how I am spending my time. Am I reading the Word? Memorizing scripture? Learning His voice? If I sense the Spirit leading me to do something, am I doing it? Have I apologized to the people I know I have offended?

I can’t do this once. I must do it every day. Every day, I must spend time in prayer and let the Spirit guide me. Everyday I need to top off my oil reserves with some scripture. Everyday, I must visualize my garden growing and prepare for what it needs to thrive.

Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this, if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. Matthew 24:42-44.

Join me in taking advantage of today to prepare.

Love in Christ, Betsy

February Plans

It’s February – time to plan the garden!

The dampness makes the air chillier than I expected. My shoes sink in the soggy earth, and I think of Irish bogs and Louisiana swamps. It feels like January in the South, but I know the temperatures are rising, the sun is staying visible longer, and soon I will need to plant sugar snaps.

I am planting them early (in February) this year because I want to harvest some before I leave town for two weeks in May. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. If the ground is frozen in a few weeks, I will have to wait; get someone else to harvest the peas.

I am working on a better support system for my sugar snap plants. I plan on using a hybrid system of tomato cages, which prevent the vines from attaching to the fence, and a string trellis, which allows them to grow taller without falling over. I have the poles Nick erected years ago. Now I just need to climb a ladder and attach some twine. Once the ground is less soggy. The ladder would sink, and I would fall today. Maybe later in the week, and before I plant the seeds.

The next question is whether to leave the cardboard or pull it up and use weed cloth where I plant the seeds. Supposedly the cardboard will deteriorate over time, but it hasn’t yet. Nick just let the weeds grow with the peas, but I find that unappealing. The cloth works well, but doesn’t reach under the landscape timbers, thus the cardboard, which does. So much planning!

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Luke 14:28.

Am I thinking this much about growing in my faith? That is what Jesus is talking about in this verse. The one before it makes that clear:

Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27.

Whoever is not willing to prepare the garden and plant the seeds will not have sugar snaps. Whoever does not control the weeds and support the vines cannot expect a healthy harvest. I am willing to do these things for my garden; am I willing to do them for my faith?

Do I go to the church my friends attend? The one with the music I like? Do I prefer the minister who makes me feel good about myself? Is my relationship with God based on what I can get out of it?

Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” John 6:26.

Am I following Christ for what he can do for me, or am I willing to put in the work to let his Spirit grow eternal fruit in me?

Am I scheduling time to prepare for God’s presence in my life? Am I planning time to study the Bible, pray with others, pray in my closet alone with God?

Have I planned for support? Not just friends who will listen, but friends that will help me grow tall. Friends that will not let me attach to the earthbound fence but encourage me to grow upward. Am I praying for those friends, seeking out such groups, making the investment of time needed to connect to them?

Do I have a plan to keep worldly worries at bay? Or am I going to let the weeds overtake me?

There is joy and a little trepidation in making these plans, making this commitment. I could fail. It could be too hard. Certainly, there are easier paths. But there is nothing like a fresh sugar snap picked from the vine. There is nothing like the love and joy and peace that only comes from following Jesus.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. John 6:27.

Won’t you join me in planning?

Love in Christ, Betsy

Melted Snow

The snow has melted and sent its stored water into the ground, into the creeks, and along its way. From the ground, the water will encourage seeds to transform into plants. It will provide moisture to the microbes and worms and creatures that live in the soil. The water that seeps into roots will travel into stems, up stalks, out branches, and into leaves and flowers and berries.

The melted snow that flows into creeks will gather into rivers from which animals can drink. Fish will thrive in these waters and animals will feast on them. As the waters gather, some will be diverted to supply our thirst, power our homes and machinery, and irrigate distant crops. Abundant water flows into the oceans that cover the earth.

Warmer temperatures will heat the collected water into the air forming clouds that winds will carry to parched areas, sharing this stored water with others.

Water is rarely stagnant, rarely stays in one form for long. Remembers those drawings from grade school about rain and evaporation? One of the wonders of water is that it is continually giving itself to the next need. Whether it is moisture for dry ground, sap for a tree, water for a deer, habitat for fish, or rain for distant plains, water is always giving.

Perhaps all of God’s gifts are like that. Perhaps everything is supposed to flow.

I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. Genesis 12:3.

What if we saw every gift sent our way as a gift meant to be shared with the next one in line? Our time, our resources, our abilities, the family and nation into which we were born, our experiences, the lessons we learn, all of everything – given to us not just for our benefit or learning, but to be shared with others; to flow from us into the larger world.

And let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ John 7:38.

I spent the last week in San Antonio, Texas. The largest mission there, Mission San Jose, was started by a monk who had spent the previous forty-three years of his life walking throughout Central America, Louisiana, and Texas sharing the gospel with whomever he found. Can you imagine? That seems an undoable task now. Imagine what is was like in the late sixteen hundreds. He referred to himself as “la misma nada,” nothing itself. Signed his letters that way.

The purpose of the missions has fallen out of favor in the anti-imperialistic, multi-cultural world of today, but this man, and many others like him, gave everything, every part of their life, to water the world with God’s love.

Sometimes, I hesitate to bring up God around people I don’t know well. Perhaps I am hoarding my blessing instead of sharing it.

God’s love, God’s passion for people, His willingness to join with us and care for us and forgive us and embrace us – this is Good News, my friend. This is an unimaginable gift. This is bigger than the most important person you can imagine calling you on the phone and inviting you to dinner. This is GOD, the creator of the universe, Lord of heaven’s armies, giver of all life, meeting with you in your den. And bringing the wine.

People need to know how much God loves them. We can let them know by passing on God’s love for us to them. We can share every gift we have with them. We can love others as God has loved us – with everything we have. We don’t have to walk for forty-three years to do it.

Perhaps the first step is to admit that we are nothing without God. God gave us everything we have, made us in our mother’s womb, and gave us breath. We are loved so that we will love others.

Let the water flow.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Treasure Stores

The snow still sits in the corner of the yard, under bushes and in the shade of buildings. Diminished snowmen grace the yards of my neighborhood. It hasn’t snowed for a week. The roads are clear and dry but secret stashes of the snow persist.

Here is the south, this is not the normal way of things. In Tennessee, snowstorms are often followed by sixty-degree days. Or the snow turns to rain before it can accumulate, and rain washes any trace of snow from the ground.

But this snow has stuck around. Even as the temperatures reach fifty, stubborn pockets of the stuff gleam white in the daylight.

I’m a big fan of water. Drinking it, looking at it, boating on it, swimming in it, spraying it on my growing garden. Snow, it seems to me, is stored water, delayed water, water saved for another day.

In my yard, it is not saved for long. I am amazed it has lasted a week. But as it melts, I wonder if the grass growing there is grateful for water on a dry day. I know that further north the snow collects for weeks, even months. On the tops of mountains great heaps of it collect.

When the time is right, these stores melt, and the precious gift of water flows into the ground, into rivers, into fields of new crops.

He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down hail like crumbs – who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes the winds blow and the waters flow. Psalm 147:16-18.

God cares for his earth. He plans for it, protects it, organizes it so that all living things can find their path, their home, their mates. The plants get their rest and then their water. The animals get their shelter and their food. I see the beauty and the design of God’s creation and wonder how anyone could doubt His existence.

God is letting the snow collect during this quiet time. The cold drives us inside; the long nights call us to rest. We, too, can take this time to let God store treasures in us for the future as He stores water in the snow.

There is some scripture you can read today that will water your parched soul in a few months. There is a connection you can make with the Holy Spirit this morning that will bring forth life when your circumstances seem barren in the future. God is preparing us just as He prepares His earth.

The time will come when you need those resources. Just as fires rage and storms destroy, you will face droughts and strong winds. You will lose the power so readily available to you now. So, store up your treasures now. Build your reserves; fatten your spiritual soul.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:20-21.

I find myself tied in knots sometimes, doubting my choices and decisions, anxious about what tomorrow will bring, frustrated at being forced to be the decision maker. My body heat rises and my heart thumps faster. It is then the cool water from a bit of stored snow-treasure refreshes me.

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Matthew 6:34.

Thank you, Lord, for a cold day in which I can store up treasures from You.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Snow Day

I had seen her footprints in the snow but was not prepared to see her beautiful orange-red fur silhouetted against the snow. A red fox!

Foxes have lived by the creek on and off in the three decades I have lived here. Usually, I hear them screaming in childbirth or barking when I get too close. They are wary of humans and quick to hide.

The snow and cold has sequestered us southerners. She must feel safe roaming in the morning light. Of a generation that does not carry their phone, the fox is almost back in hiding before I get a picture.

Once more I am humbled by the wildlife that lives among us. Unseen as we rush about our daily tasks, they are there. Perhaps waiting for the silence of an early morning covered in snow; before the kids are building snowmen; before the dogs are barking at the edge of their invisible fences; before the cars are rushing through the streets.

Such beautiful animals, foxes. So much prettier than the coyotes or the ever-present squirrels. Perhaps their rarity makes them even more beautiful. Cardinals and blue jays are just as beautiful as parakeets and macaws, but so common we sometimes miss their glamour.

Perhaps it just takes this white backdrop to appreciate them.

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Genesis 1:31.

During these days of snow when the newscasters advise us to stay home, I have immersed myself in the stories from Genesis, mostly the stories of Abraham and his family.

What a group of scoundrels! My apologies to those of you who think God only blesses right-living people. Abraham let another man take Sarah as his wife to protect himself! Jacob lied to his father and swindled his brother! Admittedly, this was well before God gave Moses the law or Jesus expanded it, but they knew their actions were wrong. The Bible makes it clear that they knew that they were wrong.

So, Pharoah called Abram, and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone.” Genesis 12:18-19.

This was after God had called Abram, after God had told him he would be a blessing (12:2).

In today’s world, the first families of our faith would need therapy, probably mandated by the courts.

Isn’t it an amazing gift that God should choose such people? Aren’t you grateful the tales of their misbehavior are included in scripture? Does that give you as much hope as it gives me?

God knows I have sin in my past. God knows when pride or greed nibbles at my soul even today. God knows that we live in comfortable mansions while people starve and freeze. God knows we do not always welcome the stranger in our midst. God still calls us. God still blesses us so that we can bless others.

Maybe that is the only reason God blesses us – so that we can share that blessing with others. It certainly can’t be because we deserve His blessings. We do not.

As it is written: There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.” Romans 3:10-12.

And yet God has blessed me with a fox sighting this morning. God has blessed the earth with snow and rest. I am glad I can share this blessing with you this morning. God is so good.

Love in Christ, Betsy