Grateful Acres

       He's been a little off lately. The volume has been full-scale, the naughty next-level, and he hasn't wanted me out of his sight. I've known that the upside down nature of life lately had sunk into his little spirit. Many days have been away from home and normal, many days with Mama out of routine and his world less predictable than he'd like. He doesn't understand that good things are happening, they just take phone calls and hours of paperwork. He doesn't understand that while we were temporarily away from our home, we were grateful for a warm, safe place that was almost home. He doesn't have context for the 'why' behind the break in routine, he just knows that it's not his normal.    His little heart and body have been expressing this intangible upset to the people around him. He is louder, bolder, shyer, poking at his playmates for attention, poking at the routines that do remain, reverting to baby voice and Mama attachment.     Ton...

   Jesus stood before more than five thousand humans. They had seen what He could do for them. They had testimony and witness of His power over the physical barriers that bind us. Their perpetual needs arose again and Jesus' attention turned to their hunger.    He knew the plan, but He paused and invited his companions along. They looked around and found nowhere near enough, and leaned back to their Lord.   "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"  John 6:9   They only had loaves and fishes.    You know the story, the miraculous, the EXTRA collected in conclusion. You know that all were fed, that nothing was wasted, that they worshiped at what was surely God's doing.   Remove the thousands, and I stand before only five humans. They think I can do it all, their needs are physical and emotional and spiritual and relational, and they have my attention.    The pl...

   I've been reading through scripture in an attempt to read cover to cover in one calendar year. The rich, slow, intricate story of the Old Testament has been wonderful, but as this year comes to a close I found myself craving the vibrancy of the New Testament. I skipped forward a bit and jumped into Matthew, and it has felt like guzzling water after a long, dry wait.    This morning I was in Matthew 13, devouring the stories and parables of Jesus. Chapter 13 includes the parable of the sower and the variety of outcomes of his seeds. Most of it is Sunday-school familiar; some seeds fall on the path and birds eat them, some seeds on rocky ground and quickly sprouted and died for lack of depth, some fell in thorns and are choked out, and some on good soil and reproduce in droves.    What struck me this morning was Jesus' explanation of the thorns later in the chapter... He said: " Now the one sown among the thorns- this is the one who hears the word, but the...

I have a couple trees in pots. I bought a few of them a few years ago and a few of them a few more years ago. Ok, maybe I have more than just "a couple" trees in pots. The cherry and apricot stubbornly sent roots out the bottom of their nursery buckets, refusing to be delayed in the planting process. The Asian pear is tiny and has obediently stayed in it's pot, faithfully giving as many little round pieces of fruit as it's tiny limbs can bear. The peach tree is trapped in a barrel with no holes to send rebel roots out of, and so is the pear.  I'm saving them for when we buy land, so they can put down roots where we put down roots. Last year the pear tree put out a whole lot of little odd-shaped nubs that looked so promising. The tree is just a bit over my head, and it was SO exciting to think of all the pears we would soon be slurping over our lunch plates! But just a few weeks in to growth something happened, and the tree shed every last one. No pears.  I don...

I had to rip out and re-do my largest garden bed this year. Twice.   I have spent the last few seasons sparsely planting, but with classes ending early this year I went a little nuts on the seeds yet again.  I pay my biggest boys in cold hard cash to till the soil each year. They upheld their end of the bargain, but I waited too long and before any seeds were underground, all that fresh soil was smothered in weeds. I tilled the soil again myself, and thoroughly planted a whole mess of hope-filled seeds!   When the starts came up, the weeds came up too, and in my gardenless years I had forgotten the distinguishing details of my hoped-for plants. I couldn't pull the weeds around those fresh little starts because I couldn't tell the difference between the good seed and the bad.  I almost over-spiritualized and let the ground lay fallow, but boy- lazy, hands-off gardening does not need to be followed by an unsanctioned, empty fallow! I left the g...

             See those curious little white flowers, awkwardly straining upward? They've stretched and soared unusually far above their leafy starts below. Know what they're doing? They're straining toward the light. This vine is planted in the ground below the bush it is crawling on, and the bush is growing beneath the shadow of the tree overhead. Those little flowers are growing beneath a shadow. In sunny, grassy circumstances, the flowers would burst out near their leaves. But in the circumstance of SHADOW, they must stretch and strain toward that light. The little starts in my window sill are leaning toward the glass, almost laying their little stalks flat in desperation to reach the light on the other side. The young Asian Pear tree in our back yard is full-tilt sideways toward the sunniest part of it's day, making every effort to soak up all the light needed for growth and fruit. Guys, IN THIS SEASON OF SHADOW, WE MUST STRAIN TOW...

" It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three, because the sun's light failed. The curtain of the sanctuary was split down the middle. And Jesus called out with a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.' Saying this, he breathed his last..." "... It was the preparation day, and the sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed along and observed the tomb and how his body was placed. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And they rested on the sabbath according to the commandment." Luke 23:44-45, 54-56 Immediately after Passover, a spiral of events of great eternal importance takes place: Jesus withdraws for fervent, bloodlike prayer, Judas betrays, Jesus is arrested, beaten and mocked, sent for trial, the crows turns and demands his crucifixion, men in power give in, nails pierce, the veil is torn, and while Jesus' body lays in a tomb... the p...