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

Merry Christmas

Thank you for taking a moment amid all the celebration to join me in the Victory Garden.

Years ago, a favorite pastor reminded us that the Lord who lived for nine months in Mary’s womb, lives eternally in those of us who call him Lord.

Take a moment and let that sink in.

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The Spirit of God lives in us.

And I wilk ask the Father, and he will give to you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. John 14:16-17.

And just as any mother must take care of the life growing within her, we need to take care of the holy life abiding within us. Feed, nurture, listen to that being’s needs, desires, urgings.

The baby Jesus left Mary’s body, but His Holy Spirit leads ours into an ever-closer relationship with God and Jesus, into an eternal life with our God.

If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through the holy Spirit that dwells in you. Romans 8:11.

And just as Mary brought Jesus into the world, we are privileged to bring His love into the world around us. The Holy Spirit has come upon us (Luke 1:35), and we are bearing the fruit of His presence, extending His kingdom with our obedience to his calling.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit from God, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19.

The Spirit of God lives in us who profess Jesus as Lord. Hallelujah. Christ the Lord is born today. Where meek souls will receive him, the dear Christ enters in.

Merry Christmas!

Love in Christ, Betsy

Connecting

A soft rain and a chilly breeze alert me that the weather has caught up to the calendar. I can turn off my A/C and get out my sweaters. My plans to putter in the yard are put on hold. This will be an inside day. I look forward to snuggling under a blanket with a cup of hot tea or hot chocolate. I might not see anyone today.

Connecting with others is vital to mental health. We learned that during the pandemic. Today, connecting can happen in a myriad of ways, the splashy methods often overshadowing the quieter ones. I’ve seen the quips – four million likes, sixty thousand followers, two hundred thousand subscribers. I have friends who follow thousands of people on twitter. I also have friends who don’t do social media at all. I have friends who don’t text. I would still prefer to have a conversation using my vocal chords.

My writing associates talk a lot about connecting with readers. Not so much because they think you, the reader, need to hear about what they, the writers, have to say; but because connection is vital. It’s the underlying emotion behind those “tell how we met” posts.

It’s got me thinking about how Jesus connected with people. He had every possible means of communication at His disposal. If it didn’t exist, He could create it with a word. He could have come in this age of international, instantaneous communication. But He didn’t.

Jesus walked the earth when walking was the predominate means of travel. Jesus met with people one on one. Jesus spoke to whomever gathered around him, one woman or five thousand men. To our knowledge, He never wrote a letter. His words come to us filtered through the ears and pens of others.

It almost seems like Jesus was more concerned with the connections He was making than with the words He was speaking. And yet, such words!

Come to me, all of you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28.

It’s easy to be concerned about what we say, to whom, and who hears it, reads it, comments on it. I worry about the words spoken in error, in haste, in anger, in ignorance. But words, as poignant as they can be, are secondary to connection.

When I am connected with someone, when I have a relationship with them, I can forgive those words spoken in haste, in anger. Hopefully, they can too. I worry about the words I send out each week. We are not speaking one-on-one, using our vocal chords, but I do feel connected to you, and I pray you feel connected to me.

Take a moment today to connect with God. Sit in silence. Stand with your feet in the grass and take deep breaths. Turn your face to the sky and feel the raindrops or the sunshine. Read a chapter of the Bible with your mind open to what the Holy Spirit wants to say.

God loves you. He wants to take you in His arms and comfort you. He wants you to let go of the tight grip you have on your life and let the tears flow. He has this, whatever this is. Your fears? He is greater. Your anger? He has soothing balm. Your guilt? He will wash it away.

God won’t make your life easy. No one’s life is easy; the problems are just different for each of us. God connects with us. God sent His Spirit to walk with us twenty-four, seven. God created the deepest connection ever imagined – He sent His Spirit to live in us. That is connected, my friend.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16.

We are not alone. We never were and we never will be. God is with us. I pray you take a moment to reach out to God today. And after that, reach out to whomever he puts in your mind. Use your vocal chords and connect.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Pentecost Peas

Christmas may the time of year when we most think about gifts, but right now, this week, is when the children of God celebrate His gifts to us.

Look at the sugar snaps bursting forth from the sap in the vine! Food from nothing, a dried-up seed pod, a patch of dirt, a little water. And God has provided me with crisp, tasty, nutritional goodness, necessary vitamins, pleasing sensations.

And once again these amazing testaments to God’s provision are bursting on the scene at Pentecost.

Pentecost is the Israeli day of celebration after fifty days of thanking God for their home, their crops, their freedom, a period called the Festival of Weeks. The first of their crops were offered to God in thanks.

You shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground from the land that God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose. Then you, along with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and your house. Deuteronomy 26: 2,11.

But Pentecost, the Feast of Shavuot, is also the time when Jewish believers celebrate the gift of God’s law. What an amazing gift His law is! Have you ever had a teacher or a boss who was unclear about what they expected from you? What were they grading you on? Punctuation and spelling? Symbolism and style? How firm was the due date? It can be demoralizing to not know what is expected of you. That is why God’s law is a gift. We know exactly what He expects of us.

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ (Deuteronomy 6:4). This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Leviticus 19:18) On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,” Matthew 22:34-40.

For Christians, Pentecost also celebrates the gift of God’s Spirit to believers. The Spirit of God is an ever-present player in the Old Testament, anointing judges with wisdom and strength, giving prophets dreams and visions, enabling victory against overwhelming odds. Since Jesus’ resurrection and return to heaven, the Spirit of God now comes and resides in the hearts of all believers.

Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far way, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him. Acts 2:28-29.

What an amazing gift! God’s Spirit residing with me, empowering me, enabling me to accomplish what He has set out for me to do, talking with me, comforting me, and leading me into knowledge. That Spirit, like the sap in my sugar snap vine, creates fruit and life and abundance where there was none. Bounty from a dried-up pod, a patch of dirt, and a little water.

I have so much to be thankful for this Pentecost season. Abundance from the earth, direction and guidance, and His enabling Spirit which makes it all possible.

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. John 15:4.

Is the Spirit’s presence in your life bearing fruit that nourishes and refreshes the world? Is love bursting from you like these sugar snaps are bursting from my plants? God has shown us through our gardens that it can happen. God can transform a seed into a fruit, barren ground into a garden. God has told us what He wants to grow in us – love, love for Him and for each other. And God has given us His Spirit to make it happen. What amazing gifts!

Betsy