Christian Living

Pondering My Garden (and King Nebuchadnezzar)

/ Bill Jones / 4 Comments

The Guara – bobs up and down with the weight of bumblebees

Since gardening season is well underway, I thought I would post an article I had published in “Keys for Living Magazine” last summer. Hope you enjoy it:

I marveled at our backyard’s beauty. The phlox beamed beside the weathered picket fence. The hibiscus was nearly eight feet tall and was smothered in pink blooms. Long tendrils of the guara held out their flowers and danced as the bumblebees did touch and go landings. Cardinals and bluebirds were bright spots of color at the feeders.

Several years earlier the yard was just an expanse of pasture. Over time I built the garden’s structure and established the flower beds. The fence came first and defined the back of the yard. I think I actually applauded in satisfaction when the gate’s latch clicked in place and fit perfectly.

A working gate deserved more than a dirt path, so a walkway of red concrete pavers came next. The addition of a pump house with a barn style roof and weathervane on top added a rustic touch to the scene.

The bahia grass in the old pasture was so thick that my tiller just dragged me along as it bounced over the top. I’m sure it was comical to watch, but to me it was frustrating. With that obstacle, it became a struggle to transform sections into flower beds. Many exhausting sessions of hand work were required but the transformation did occur.

The histories of many of the plants also came to mind. The oak leaf hydrangea was 12 inches tall when planted. Now it covered an area twenty five feet across.

I bought the pagoda plant sight-unseen. What a surprise we had when it produced spectacular orange blooms over a foot tall that did look like a Chinese pagoda – with multiple stems and flowers in layers that decreased in circumference from the bottom to the top. And they were like butterfly magnets.

Pagoda Plant with Butterflies

Pagoda Plant with Butterflies

Standing there, remembering the years of work that had been involved, I could have shouted “Look at this great garden I have built!” Thankfully, I thought better of it and didn’t.

I thought of King Nebuchadnezzar who gazed at his city and said: “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? (Daniel 4:30 KJV) At that moment God showed him who had the power and majesty. The King spent the next seven years eating grass like an ox.

I didn’t mimic his words. Not from fear of having to eat grass, but from the realization that without God I could have done nothing. I praised Him for the beautiful flowers and birds He created. I thanked Him for the strength to build the fence. I thanked Him for the time, resources and opportunities He had provided.

That day I knew what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote that he had planted and Apollos had watered but God gave the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6). Paul was writing of spiritual growth, but in my physical garden I understood that while I may have built and planted and watered, it was God alone Who, in His power and majesty, had completed it and made it beautiful!

Zucchini Blessings Return

/ Bill Jones / 9 Comments
Zucchini Plant

Zucchini Plant

You hear a lot of stories about how prolific zucchini is – you get more than you can keep up with. (Like the old joke in gardening circles – don’t leave your car window rolled down or someone will leave a bag of zucchini).

Several years ago I gave up on the plant. There wasn’t a problem with too many, it was very few.  I had problems with squash vine borers. I never could figure out how to prevent them from decimating the vines so I just quit.

But this year I tried them again and you can see from this one plant that the Lord has blessed us with a load of zucchini again.  We’re having them sauted and grilled, giving them away and Sharon’s making zucchini bread. It is a great blessing so if you need some let me know. I’m not sure where the squash vine borers are, but I’m thankful they haven’t found their way back yet.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” Proverbs 3:5-10

Thank the Lord for plants full of zucchini!

Pursue Wisdom

/ Bill Jones / 29 Comments
English: The Wisdom of Solomon, by James Jacqu...

The Wisdom of Solomon

This is part of the ChristianWriters.com blog chain, with the June theme of “Pursuit”. Please check out the list to the right for other blogs during the month.

Sharon and I were checking out the furniture before the auction. As we walked through the aisles, she noticed a beautiful oak chest-of-drawers. She called me over to see it and let me know she loved it. Of course, since she loved it, I did too – so, we decided to bid on it and determined what our maximum bid could be.

About an hour into the auction, they took the chest to the front of the room. Sharon squeezed my arm and whispered, “There it is!”

The bidding started and we let a couple of rounds go by before we jumped in. The bids were lower and slower than we expected and were still much below our planned price. I made a bid that was countered by a slightly higher one. We looked at each other, and since we were still well within our limit, I raised the bid.

We waited excitedly as the seconds ticked by with no other response – then, really got excited when we heard “sold”. The chest was ours for half the cost we thought it would be!

We relaxed and settled back triumphantly to watch more of the auction. The helpers at the front picked up a chest and walked away with it. Then, two others picked up “our” chest and moved it to the center. The auctioneer started with “now, we have this beautiful oak chest – what am I bid?”

I stood up and started to shout, “Wait, we just bought that one!”, but quickly deduced the mistake was ours. We had not been paying attention through most of the auction, and now realized “our” oak chest had been in the waiting area where the items coming up next were set.

We hadn’t even noticed the chest that really was now ours. I had to go walk through the aisles of sold stuff and search for our number. I found a plain pine chest of drawers – probably worth what we paid for it, but we had no desire to take it home. We left it there on consignment to be sold at the next auction.

The results of the waylaid process were:

  • The pine chest sold at the next auction, but when they took the seller’s fee out, we lost money.
  • The oak chest sold for about twice what we said we could afford to pay for it, so our plan wasn’t realistic from the beginning.
  • We learned the lesson that we need to be sure what we’re bidding on before we jump in.

Our pursuit of the chest had gone astray, and it was obvious a pursuit of wisdom would have served us better.

“Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore, get wisdom…” Proverbs 4:7 NKJV

We spend much of our lives pursuing knowledge – through school, workshops, reading, and training at work or elsewhere. That’s not a bad thing, because knowledge is necessary for what we need and want to do.

The Bible has several passages that emphasize the importance of knowledge. But, as critical as it is, knowledge isn’t an end in itself. As the verse above states, we should take knowledge and move beyond it to wisdom – wisdom is to be our principal pursuit.

It takes wisdom to understand that we need knowledge, and to determine what knowledge we need. It takes wisdom to understand how to use knowledge. A great example of that is Ephesians 4:15 where Paul encourages us to speak the truth in love. Speaking the truth is knowledge. Speaking it in love is wisdom.

It is wise to understand that having more wisdom would be helpful. (As I get older, I am getting wiser, if only because I can see how much more wisdom I need). Like King Solomon, who showed that God had already given him some wisdom – he had enough to know he needed to ask for more.

Where does wisdom come from? God does use situations (like auctions) to help us learn wisdom. But, the principal place for us to pursue wisdom is in God’s Word, for it is wisdom. Getting wisdom, as stated in the Proverbs verse above, is learning, understanding and obeying God’s Word.

The auction experience did make Sharon and me wiser (at a cost of money and embarrassment). But, a better way to pursue wisdom isn’t through experience. King David wrote in Psalm 119:98-100, that God, through His commandments, had made him wiser than his enemies. Meditating on God’s testimonies and obeying God’s precepts gave him more understanding than his teachers or his elders.

Then in that same passage, we are given instructions on how we should be guided, not just in our pursuit of wisdom, but in all our pursuits here on earth:

“Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” Psalms 119:105

Pursue wisdom by the light of God’s Word.

Much Ado About Half of Nothing

/ Bill Jones / 4 Comments
Typebars in a 1920s typewriter

Typebars in a 1920s typewriter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the way we lost one of the spaces after a sentence. Back in high-school typing class (yes, it was many years ago), the teacher drilled into our heads that there should be two spaces after a typed sentence. “…type, type, type, type, type, period, space, space!”

However, now I have learned that only one space is needed. As I understand, it comes with the difference between using computers/printers and typewriters. The modern combination can separate the letters depending on their width, while the outdated typewriter takes up the same width with each letter. Thus, with the typewriter, to ensure a readable width at the ends and beginnings of sentences, two spaces were necessary.

Since a space is actually nothing, we can say that now we only need half as much nothing as we did before. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

We often hear, and say, there’s nothing to watch on TV. Having half as much nothing to watch doesn’t solve any problems. “Nothing” is the common answer to the question “Whatcha doing?” Doing half as much nothing doesn’t seem to matter one way or the other.

Perhaps Shakespeare’s play will need to be renamed “Much Ado About Half of Nothing”. And, if we’re able to do a task quickly, it may be done in “half of nothing flat”.

You get the idea – losing a space doesn’t have much serious effect. It just requires some practice to get in the habit.

But, when considering “nothing” we are given some principles to follow:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV

Nothing should interrupt the peace of God within us. In everything that happens in life, which will include trials and tribulations, Christ Jesus is with us, and we should be ever thankful for His presence and power.

 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 1 Timothy 6:7 NKJV

We are not here to gather things for the sake of gathering things. (This is part of the passage including “the love of money is the root of all evil”.) Our pursuits should not be for things but, as verse 8 tells us, if we have food and clothing we should be content. Then, verse 11 spells out that our pursuits should be righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

We can pursue no thing, and we can be anxious about nothing (or half of nothing), and find the peace of God – but it’s only through His presence and power that we ever find that contentment that the human mind can’t understand.