Tag: Blessings

Just Enough

I am new to growing figs, but I was encouraged to grow them by the baskets full of figs that friends have shared in the past. Too much to eat, too much to process, too much to share. For some reason, that has not been my experience.

My tree is producing figs and they are delicious! Sweet and pithy, they dissolve in my mouth, and I love having them available. But they ripen one at a time every few days. So, if I share a ripe fig with you, it is the one and only ripe fig I have that day. Tomorrow I may have another one, but if I don’t eat it soon, it will become overripe.

As grateful as I am for each and every fig, I also feel a little, well, disappointed. I don’t want to share the few I have and yet I would like to have enough to share them with others, let others share my joy, perhaps brag a little. And there’s the rub. I want a big harvest partially so you will be impressed by my big harvest.

See how God has blessed me! Oh, yes. God definitely gets the credit. I can not make a single fig appear, or a tomato or a cucumber or even a basil leaf. But there is still pride in showing off how much God has blessed my gardening efforts, and some embarrassment when those blessings seem a little scarce and far apart.

Am I now seeking human approval or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10.

Sometimes, God seems to give to us abundantly and sometimes only just what we need for today. And it is tempting to think that this has something to do with us, with our efforts and attitudes, with our righteous living or poor decision making. But it could have more to do with God than with us.

Perhaps he gives us abundance so that we can share, just enough so that we can trust in His providence, and not quite enough so that others can be generous. Perhaps a limited supply is the blessing.

So, God has blessed me with a few ripe figs, and I am grateful for them. I don’t have enough to make fig preserves or take a basket to my friends, but I have one for today and one for tomorrow and what more, really, does anyone need?

Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11.

In this culture where more is better, we may confuse abundance with blessing. It may be tempting to think that riches signify God’s approval. God may give us riches for His purposes, but He may also call us to sell all that we own (Mark 10:21). He may tell us to take nothing with us (Luke 9:3). He may even turn our idea of blessing on its head.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11-12.

These ripening figs are a gift. An underserved gracious gift from a loving God. I will be grateful and not complain that there is not more. I do not need more. He has provided what I need, my daily fig.

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