Tag: nature

Seeds and Hope

The sun warms my face and arms and a trickle of sweat runs down my face. Sweat! In the cold of a few short weeks ago, planting sugar snap seeds felt like a dream, a wishful hope, a potential impossibility. But here I am. It’s March and I am plating sugar snap seeds and sweating.

I pulled up the tarps which have, hopefully, killed all the emerging weeds. I have made my furrows and covered the dried pods with nutrient rich soil. The ground is damp and rain is in the forecast, so I won’t water today, but I have tested the hose and sprayer in anticipation.

The weather on the first of March was very similar to the weather on the last day of February, but the emotions were far different. March means gardening, getting outdoors, warmer weather, flowering trees, and greening grass. This March I will plant two new fig trees in my yard. Not the dwarf, patio fig I have in my garden but real trees. This March I will host an Easter Egg hunt for a branch of my large family, and my yard needs to be ready. This March, I will add beets to my garden for the first time.

God willing.

Because we don’t really know, do we? I have all these plans, and I will work diligently to put them in place, but who really knows except God? As much as March means warmer weather to me, it can also mean tornados and freak snowstorms. The irises are up and the garlic bulbs are sprouting, the sun is shining and the birds are chirping. Winter is changing into Spring, but we are not there yet.

All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:13-16.

Am I looking forward to a homeland with Christ as much as I am looking forward to warm weather and tasty sugar snaps? I have faith that His new world will be considerably better than the one I live in now. But the one I live in now can be lovely. Full of people I love and beautiful sunrises and fruit bearing trees.

Have I made plans, prepared myself for that family reunion? Have I planted seeds that will bear fruit there?

My time on this earth is limited. My death may not be imminent, but it is inevitable. 100% probability. I plant. I plan. I hope to make memories and connections and reach out beyond myself. I plant trees even if I may never see them grown. Someone else can harvest their fruit if I am unable. I am just a traveler here, a visitor.

The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine (the Lord’s); with me you are but aliens and tenants. Leviticus 25:23.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to live here, to plant these seeds, to feel the sun on my face and the sweat on my brow. What hope March holds. What hope faith provides. This day is wonderful, a gift. And that future, that future heavenly country? That will be even better.

I drop the seeds into the soil and lift my face to the sun.

Love in Christ, Betsy

God Sparkles

The wet grass has frozen overnight and catches the morning sun like glistening jewels. Not the glare of sun reflecting off snow, not yet this winter, not this far south, just sparkling frost. I can’t capture it with the camera. But the sight holds me mesmerized for minutes.

Reflected sunlight. Just little bits of sun in behold-able sparkles. And isn’t God like that? Sometimes He is the glaring sun that makes us shade our eyes and look for a hiding place. But more often, I think, He reveals himself more gently. In the moisture left from the rain, in the chilly weather that allows the plants to rest, in the reflected light, in a sparkle the camera can’t quite catch.

I drink my coffee – beans from the earth, water from the skies. I look out my window – glass made from sand and rocks eroded by the weather. I snuggle into my sweater –an animal’s wooly fleece. I am protected in a house of bricks made from clay. My home is heated by gifts from God’s earth – gas, or coal, or water-generated power.

How accustomed I have become to all God’s gifts, how readily I take them for granted. How rarely I take the moment to thank God for them all.

In the moments I stand and watch, the warming sun steals the glittering frost. As if God’s appearance in this moment was for this moment only and not a thing to be captured and held onto. I want to build a tabernacle to this moment when I saw God in the sparkles in my yard. Perhaps that is what I am doing as I write this.

Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah” – not knowing what he said. Luke 9:33.

But it is not the sparkling grass that I need to admire. Not the sun or the rain, not the coffee beans, the glass, or the sheep’s wool. All these just point to the gracious provision of a loving God. Provision that is not based on my worthiness or even my gratitude, but on His love for me, for you, for all of us.

Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Luke 9:35.

I turn from the window, refill my coffee cup, and head to the chair beside my Bible. Listen to Him. And isn’t that the real gift? That God gave us Himself in human form, spoke to us in a voice we could hear and understand? I turn to Matthew five and listen to Jesus’ words. Comforting, inspiring, challenging, words which call me know Him, to hear and do.

It’s a new year – 2025 – but these old words are still the ones worth listening to. Jesus’s voice is still the one God tells us to listen to. And His words still carry more life-changing wisdom than the millions of words written since then. I’m not a big resolution maker. God is in charge, and He may have other plans. But I can resolve to listen to God’s Son more. To hear and do.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the 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.

Listen to Him.

May God bring you blessings and joy in 2025. May you build your house on the rock and withstand the storms.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Beauty

I planned to write about planting sugar snap seeds, but the beauty of this tree won’t wait.

What a gift God gives us with Japanese Magnolias! Gorgeous pinks and reds, delicate petals, poignant fragrance that greets me each time I step outside.

My yard is littered with the fragile blossoms already fallen in the breeze. They drift over my house and dot my front yard. I wish whoever planted this tree had planted her in the middle of a field for all to see. Tucked in this tiny space, she has blessed my family for years.

What beauty! Isn’t God amazing to create such rich colors and scents? And gift us with the ability to appreciate, admire, and revel in them?

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. Revelation 4:11.

Amazing how this beauty elevates my mood. My eyes widen, a smile cracks my face, I take deep breaths and laugh more. Beauty brings me joy. Even on a cloudy day with chilly, misting rain, this tree is like a small sun radiating light. And we who behold it carry that light with us into the world.

This tree is a little of God’s character shining into the darkness.

I was driving the other day and had to stop the car. A row of Bradford Pears in full bloom hugged the road. Stunning beauty. Like giant bridal bouquets of startling white flowers set on the ground.

These beauties have appeared suddenly throughout my neighborhood, the tips of white showing around corners, through fences, in distant yards.

The once random dots of yellow daffodils and jonquils have become fields of golden laughter.

O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. Psalm 43:4-5.

I cannot help but praise God with joy for these gifts of beauty; they are lights that lead me right back to Him and usher in His presence. What are my worries and frustrations compared to the beauty that surrounds me?

How can I doubt the goodness of God when He creates such beauty? Not only does it bless us today, but it generates the seeds of future beauty, creating an ever more beautiful world around us if we let it.

I am grateful that this tree stopped me this morning. She called for me to set aside my to-do list and appreciate her presence. I am so glad I did.

This beauty is fleeting. Tomorrow, all the petals may fall. Tomorrow, green leaves may replace the pinks and reds and whites. It may snow and cover it all. Today, I need to stop and appreciate this beauty.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8.

The sugar snaps seeds will still be in the ground next week.

Betsy