Scattering Seeds...

SCATTERING SEEDS.
Settling into a comfortable chair, I took a small sip from a cup of steaming aromatic tea. It comforted me as I gazed out the window of the little tea shop. Only minutes ago the sun illuminated the landscape, brightening the rain soaked places that sparkled in the sun. All too soon, however, the accumulation of rain clouds rolled across the sky and closed it up again and the earth darkened.

This was a pensive morning. I had just left a friend who shared deep sorrow -- sorrow so deep that she was still wrapped in the raw pangs of it and unable to accept comfort. I thought about her shattered life and continued looking out the window with thoughts about sorrow and suffering and what we do with it as it shapes our lives. That's when I decided to create this blog. It's a combination of various stories of heartbreak and sorrow in my own life and how I got through each day, each moment, and every second of those wounded times now healed. And s
o the title, Scattering Seeds. I scatter little seeds of hope and pray that you will be encouraged in your own journey as you read my writings.

One thought comforts me. It's in the lowest valley of humility where we find God's comfort; in the darkest shadow of the mountain where we experience His peace; in climbing the dusty journey up the mountain where we know His power and His strength. Then we are given His vision for that which we can become in His design.

Photo description: A sun-break after the rain.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Being Faithful In the Smallest Of Tasks

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Nature is the canvas God paints on and I love photographing His work, especially in the early spring when the season begins to awaken the sleeping things of the earth and tiny new leaves and buds begin to appear.

It’s magical!

I’m amazed at how the tiny things begin as infant bulbs that slowly cultivate petite and fragile petals as they grow. I took special care in noticing how new little buds of every growing thing hold their petals together as in a gesture of prayer before opening themselves into full bloom to expose their inner beauty.

We could glean a mighty lesson from nature.

Little buds take days to fully flourish. I’ve spent some time observing them; and as I say this, I envision the tree in front of my house. It is adorned with numerous newborn buds. I’ve been watching and recording their progress in photographs. Some of the buds have blossomed into clusters of tiny delicate yellow flowers. There are several of them on each of the branches. Soon they will mature into leaves and the tree’s seasonal cycle will repeat itself each year until the tree ceases to exist.

I’ve been in this location for a while so I’m privileged to see the changes taking place on this particular tree throughout the seasons of the year. The little yellow flowers become tiny leaves that fill the tree and grow into bigger leaves that provide beauty, shade and housing for the birds of the air, and a frolicking place for the little squirrels. It’s invigorating to watch these exquisite leaves dance, and listen to them sing whenever a gentle air current wafts through their branches. It’s like a chatter of song giving praise to the season of summer sunshine.



Fall enchants me with a glorious display of colorful leaves on the stately tree. I sit on the deck or view this magnificent tree from my patio window and marvel at the spectacular display of gold, red, pink, yellow, green, brown, tan, and lavender leaves quivering in the breeze as gusts of wind snatch them, one by one, from the arms of the tree. They soar on the wind or twirl as a ballerina in a pirouette as they dance along the streets and walkways. And then they are gone forever, never to return again. The same leaves will never return. New ones will come and take their place. We can be sure of this, as long as the tree remains.

We could glean a mighty lesson from nature.

Winter comes too soon. All the leaves disappear, withered, disintegrated, and dissolved into dust that blends itself back into the earth. Then the branches become heavy with snow as soft, cold mounds of white recline on frozen branches and glimmers as sunlight momentarily peeks through the gray cloudy skies. Winter has its own beauty.



After the winter, spring sings in celebration of its return and the cycle begins again with new little buds.

It’s a faithful tree, that extraordinary maple tree in front of my home. It continues to be faithful in all the little tasks that have been assigned to it throughout the seasons of its life; and it isn’t discontent with its assignment, nor does it uproot itself in search of an accomplishment that it might consider to be of greater value. It is content to be a Maple Tree and flourish in the way God intended it to do. And I, for one, am blessed that it exists.

We could glean a mighty lesson from nature.

God’s propose for us, I believe, is to love Him, and to learn from all His creations; and like the maple tree, to be faithful in all the little tasks He assigns to us through every season of our life. By doing so, we bless others; and we are exceedingly blessed in return.

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Through The Years

Through The Years