Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Plant Gardens

Jeremiah 29:5 "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce."

This is a painting of my precious nephew, Ford, picking vegetables out of his grandfather's garden. His grandfather, my father, has always had a love for planting and gardening, and each year he blesses us with his vegetables and my favorite, his silverqueen corn, homegrown from his garden. My father is not what you would call a minimalist, and anything he does, he does in a grand way. His garden this year could have fed half of Harris County, so he had plenty of veggies to share with family and friends.
While my father was in the process of planting his garden this year, I called to tell him the girls wanted to come help him plant. He had already planted most of it, so he dug up one whole row of potatoes so they could replant them and feel a part of his garden. The girls loved planting the potatoes and seeds, and they had so much fun seeing the finished product of those seeds.
Picking time was so much fun. I loved watching the girls reach down in the ground and pull out a potato where only a month or so earlier, there had only been a hole in the ground. I didn't have the pleasure of picking with my sweet nephew, Ford, but when I saw this photo of him on his mother's blog and the scripture that she had put with it, I just had to paint it. It is such a picture of my children's and my brothers' children time with their grandfather.
The majority of my father's free time is spent improving the land that he lives on. He has always had an appreciation for nature and most of my memories with him are riding in the woods learning about the names of trees or different types of birds. Although I still fail at remembering the names of the trees he has taught me so many times, he instilled in me a love for the outdoors and the unnoticed miracles of nature. Although we are not able to get to his home as often as we would like, it is such a blessing to have a place to take our children, where they can spend hours fishing and learning about the outdoors.
My father carries the grandchildren around in his motorized cart showing them all of the things he has planted in the previous weeks or months. They love picking apples off the trees, and tasting of strange fruits so that they can giggle with granddaddy as they spit them out. Each child has their own birdhouse which he strategically placed throughout the farm and had them each write their name on them. He drives them to each house, and they hop down from the cart to check to see if a bird has built a nest or laid eggs in their very own house.
His duck boxes are filled with eggs each spring and the children delight in peeking in the houses to discover the beginnings of a nest or eggs where weeks earlier there had been none.
I have always loved hearing my fathers odd facts about trees, insects, and animals, learning about the different types of birds that laid the eggs he has collected and why they build their nests the way they do. God's world and his creations have always fascinated me, and my father's passion for those things has had more of an influence in my life than he most likely knows. I pray that my father is with us long enough to teach my children and all of my nieces and nephews all of the same things he taught me about God's amazing creatures and the beauty of the land and nature.
Thank you Dad for all the cart rides, "nature lessons", and for allowing us the opportunity to enjoy your beautiful land that you have worked so hard for. Thank you for your garden and the baskets of vegetables you leave at our door, and most of all for the experiences you have given us. I love you and am thankful for you.
By the way, I may not remember the names of those trees, but at least I knew that a baby eagle is an eaglet! :) -which the word eagle just reminded me of you in your Eagle station wagon and gave me a really good laugh! I love you.

Thank you God for my precious nephew, Ford, and all of my nieces and nephews and the joy that they bring to my life. I pray that we will have many years of planting and picking gardens together!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

God Himself Will Provide the Lamb

Genesis 22:8 "...God himself will provide the lamb…”

In the account of Genesis, Abraham and Sarah desired to have a child. God had promised the couple that their descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky, but as Abraham neared the ripe old age of one hundred, Sarah had yet to give birth to a child.

God, in his sovereignty, allowed Sarah to wait until He brought her a child in his perfect timing. She tried everything to no avail, even allowing Abraham to have a child with her maidservant so that she could build a family through her.

Eventually, God opened Sarah’s womb, giving her a son named Isaac. She named him Isaac, because “Isaac” means laughter. Sarah, when discovering that she was pregnant in her old age, said, ”God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”(Genesis 21:6-7) So after years and years of waiting, God gave Sarah a child.

Later in Genesis 22, God tells Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about. “ Because Abraham loved God, even in his pain and anguish, he obeyed God and took his son to the mountain God told him to, and prepared to sacrifice his one and only son, whom he loved so much.

On the way up the mountain, Isaac, not knowing what his father was preparing to do, said to his father, “The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

When they reached the top of the mountain, Abraham laid Isaac on the altar, bound him, and prepared to kill him. But an angel of the Lord called out to him and said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Then Abraham looked in the thicket and saw a ram caught by its horns, so he sacrificed the ram as a burnt offering to the Lord instead of his son. Genesis 22:14 says, “So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.”

My Aunt Nora, more commonly known by her grandchildren as “Granny”, purchased this painting for her granddaughter, Frances Garrard. Frances is the daughter of Frank and Betsy, my first cousin and his wife. One year ago today, Frances Garrard came into the world. Like Isaac’s birth, the birth of Frances, their first and only daughter, was an event that had been anticipated for a long time. Betsy was told she probably would not be able to have children, but like Sarah, she waited for many years until God, in his love and mercy, gave her Frances. When her friends and family heard of her pregnancy, we, like Sarah and Abraham's friends and family, laughed with joy and surprise, and thanked God for the gift God had given her.

Shortly after Frances’s birth, Frances contracted Pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough. Frances was hospitalized, and daily her condition grew worse. She was resuscitated over and over, and each night Betsy and Frank wondered if their precious daughter would make it to the next morning.

After receiving the news from the doctor that Frances only had a ten percent chance of surviving, Betsy continued to pray for her child. Betsy’s grandmother often read her bible stories when she was young. The story of Abraham taking his only son to the mountain to sacrifice him came to her mind. She remembered that Abraham, after waiting for years and years to have a child, had been asked to sacrifice his one and only son. Betsy feared she might be asked to do the same. Like Abraham, even in her pain and anguish, she told God that even if Frances did not live, she would still love Him, but continued to pray that God would heal Frances and allow them to keep their child. So like Abraham, Betsy put her child on the altar, entrusting her to her creator, and agreed to love God whether the outcome was what she desired or not.

Hundreds of people in Frank and Betsy’s hometowns lifted up sweet Frances in prayer. Bible study groups gathered in prayer, and friends and family knelt and pleaded for her life. We rushed to our computers early in the morning hoping to hear reports that she had survived the previous night. Day by day, she began to heal. In his time, God healed her little lungs, and today Frances is turning one year old.

God provided the ram for the sacrifice on top of that mountain so that Isaac could live. Many years later, God provided his only son, his lamb, the “Lamb of God”, as a sacrifice so that we would never have to die but live in eternity with him. Instead of sacrificing us on the altar, he placed his son on the cross.

1 Peter 2:24 says, “…by his wounds, you have been healed.” Psalm 103 says, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-who forgives all your sins, and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things…’ God healed Frances and satisfied the desires of her loving parents.

We do not always see physical healing in this lifetime, sometimes even when we fervently pray. Even then, we are called to love God, give him praise, and trust that He is working all things out for our good. (Romans 8:28) When we do see his healing touch, we are called to lift our arms to the God of the universe and give thanks and praise for the sacrifice of God’s lamb, his one and only son, who was bound to the cross and died for the forgiveness of our sins and the healing of our bodies. Praise you Father for your "benefits" of healing, and most of all for the provision of the sacrifice of your son. Thank you for being with Frank and Betsy and their families on the mountain that Abraham called “The Lord Will Provide.” Thank you for providing the sacrifice of your lamb, and thank you for allowing Betsy and Frank to keep theirs. Happy Birthday Frances!

“...God himself will provide the lamb…” (Genesis 22:8)

In Jesus Name. Amen