farm fields

Lilies and Sparrows

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When I was a teenager I sometimes worked in the hay fields during the hottest part of Summer. The farmer would pass ahead of us through the fields gathering and baling the loose hay and we followed behind piling the bales on a truck and then stacking them in the barn. The fragrance of the freshly cut hay still lingers in my memory as well as the 1554287255655_image.jpg

view from where I rode on top of the pile.  From there I could look out and see the tiny flowers that had nestled under cover of the tall grass, now uncovered in all their startling beauty. 

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us not to be concerned about the details of our life. He said that we could trust Him to take care of us just like He took care of those wild flowers in the field. Then He talked about sparrows. Maybe he choose sparrows because they have no colorful feathers, mighty talons or majestic wingspan.

1554287664847_image.jpgThey are ordinary just like us and Jesus said that God watches over every one of them and even notices when they fall.

With Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday on our horizon, let’s think for a moment of how Jesus was doing more than just telling us not to worry. He was also reminding us that we could trust God even during the worst moments of our lives just as He did. At the cross they stripped Him naked and gambled for His clothing; but today He wears a robe of light and is clothed with the sun. And on that same dark afternoon He fell to the ground like the sparrow and they took and laid Him in a tomb. Though only a few saw the place where He was laid; God had not forgotten. He knew exactly where to send the angel to roll back the stone on Resurrection morning. In one miracle moment the Spirit breathed the breath of life into Him and Jesus walked out to comfort Mary Magdalene; to bring peace to Peter and John and the assurance of faith Thomas.  Today He freely offers any of us who will believe a gift greater than lilies and sparrows. He promises that if we follow Him we will find our own eternal place in His home and at His side forevermore!

 

 

Cloudy Day

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Do you know how the clouds are balanced, Those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge? Job 37:16

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As we are preparing to begin the road towards Florida I thought I’d take some farewell photos of my beloved farm (not mine exactly but the one I have managed for 25 years. Wouldn’t you know it but my big chance for lots of spectacular endless mountain scenery ended up as a cloudy day.

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But even with clouds it is still an amazing place. It is so hard to imagine not seeing these hills, muddy roads, quiet streams and fields.

 

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Nothing grows easily in this hard rocky clay soil but grass, trees, corn and people with roots deep enough to keep them from being blown off the mountain ridges!

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But whatever road God leads us on He has promised to be with us. What better scenery than the horizon that God has chosen is there? He has promised to watch over, walk along side and care for our needs in whatever place He chooses for us to call home!

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:26

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The Longest Journey – Part 1

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  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law Galatians 4:4 ESV

On the night Jesus was born the shepherds had followed long dark pathways down from the hills where they had been watching the flocks. Joseph and Mary had wearily journeyed all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem at just this right time. Farthest of all came the wise men who had journeyed all the way from the east. But of all who were there in Bethlehem no one had traveled father than the one for whom they came.

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The shepherds came at the time they heard the angels. The wise men journeyed at the time they saw His star appear. Mary and Joseph arrived when the time was completed for the birth of the child. How interesting that Jesus also came at just the right time,

 

It was at His chosen hour that God sent His Son. It was the longest journey from the place of the pure love of God to a world where King Herod ordered the execution of innocent children. It was an enormous distance from the halls of worshiping angels to a stable with the snorting of cattle and the rustle of mice in the hay. But at God’s exact day and hour Jesus came. He could wait no longer. Our dark and cold world awaited Him as angels stood on tip-toe to witness His birth. He came as hope when all our hopes had been wrapped in night. He arrived in the natural pains of child birth and but He opened His eyes His journey was only just beginning.