Dandy Lines

When I was a child, soon after school let out we headed for Indiana for a two-week vacation.  This was “going home” to my parents and they planned wonderful adventures for our family.  One of my favorite destinations was always my grandparents’ farm.  My grandmother had the most beautiful flower garden I’ve ever seen, because it was lovingly created and tended by MY grandmother.  There were paths to walk and fragrances to smell.  There were bees to dodge and butterflies to chase.  If you looked very quietly and very closely, there would be kittens, hiding in the shade underneath the taller plants.  This, to a child, was a wonderland to explore.   I could spend hours just wandering around taking it all in.  My grandmother would patiently explain the name of each flower and could usually add the source of her first cutting or the seeds.  “This grew from a cutting of the neighbor across the way, this came from the old home place, this is one your Aunt Ann brought from Tennessee.”  Suddenly the beautiful floral “quilt” of zinnias, marigolds, jack-in-the-pulpits and four-o’clocks became more like a piece of my family.  I learned so many wonderful things from my grandmother.  Watching her tend her garden taught me patience, love, and respect for God’s creation.  Having raised 14 children, my grandmother definitely knew about patience, but more importantly she knew about love.  Her love of the Lord was reflected in everything around her.

Come walk with me today through the garden.  Pause to notice the lush green.  Go ahead and be amazed that the funny looking bulbs you planted have become these amazingly beautiful flowers with rich colors and fragrant blooms that drink in the rain, then glow in the sunshine. 

It’s a new season.  A season in which God’s creation just beckons us to come outside and walk among the flowers.  Take your allergy meds so you can get out and breathe deeply of the fresh spring air.  Let it enrich your life, lift your burden, and dissolve your cares.  Make this your own “time of peace”.  Peace with yourself, peace with your situation, peace with your loved ones and neighbors. 

We lift up those on our prayer board.  As we are mindful of tremendous burdens, cancerous onslaughts, painful losses, and tough choices being made, we reach out to each other as together we reach out to HIM.  As HE is in every season of our lives, our Lord stands ready and willing to carry us through.  We’ve been through many seasons together and each time we’ve seen these seasons pass as new ones take their place.  Allow this new season to be a time of growth, renewal and a fresh start.  Let the morning dew bring healing and the evening breeze bring comfort. 

…..and always remember you are loved,

~Janet~