Flower

Blessings From God – Butterflies

/ Bill Jones / 4 Comments

Joe Pye Weed with Butterflies

I’ve focused on blessings from God the last couple of weeks, and today I thought it worthwhile to continue. Here’s a photo of 4 large (and beautiful) butterflies on the Joe Pye Weed plant in one of the flower beds out back. God’s creation just amazes me constantly.

“Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his;  we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” Psalms 100 ESV

Blessings from God – Surprise Lilies

/ Bill Jones / 6 Comments

Red Spider Lily, Hurricane Lily, Surprise Lily

I guess the official “common name” of this flower is Red Spider Lily.

Down here in the South, if you’re close enough to the coast to notice hurricane season, they’re sometimes called Hurricane  Lilies. Since they’ve been blooming over the last two or three weeks, they usually bloom at the height of hurricane season.

But, my favorite name is Surprise Lily. I don’t know if there’s an official reason for that name, but, several possibilities come to mind. One is the time of the season – everything’s winding down and more unexpected flowers arrive – surprise!

As you see, there aren’t any leaves that come up first to let you know there’s a flower on the way – it just shoots up from the ground – surprise!. And as you also see, it’s not in a bed, it’s just coming up in the middle of the grass. Each year more show up in new places – surprise!

So, I guess the theme of this one is more surprise blessings from God. More than we can even think.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV

The Fragrance of Christ

/ Bill Jones / 4 Comments

Four O’clocks

“But, thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.” 2 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

The picture above shows the four o’clocks growing by our back steps. The flowers open in the late afternoon and give off a wonderful fragrance. It’s not overpowering, just a subtle aroma that permeates the area.

You can stand near the bush and not notice it outright. But, after a minute or two, you begin to sense there’s something nice close by. Something that makes you want to hang around awhile and enjoy the presence.

The verse above tells us God uses us to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus everywhere. To do that, we don’t need to be overpowering. We should look for opportunities to tell others about Jesus, but we can also spread His fragrance without doing that.

I think the best way to spread the fragrance of Christ is to show His love in all we do and say. Those around us should sense there’s something nice close by (Christ’s Spirit) and want to hang around and enjoy His presence in us.

Can Weeds Reveal the Glory of God?

/ Bill Jones / 16 Comments

Volunteer Weeds

We’ve all heard the saying that a weed is any plant in the wrong place. I’ve had several plants this year in the wrong place (or at least I didn’t put them there) but I wouldn’t call them weeds. I’ve posted about all the sunflowers the birds dropped around the yard that brightened up everything wonderfully. (If you look closely you can see the bumblebee on one of them)

Volunteer Grain

I assume the plant above came from bird seed from one of the feeders in the back yard. It did quite well where it wasn’t supposed to be. And I like it there. (Good timing and contrast with the guara that’s faded for the season.)

Volunteer Vines

These vines come back each year along the fence. I never planted them there – they just showed up. I look forward now each year to them coming back. Just what the fence needed.

Joe Pye Weed

I had to put this one in since it’s called a weed – and it’s exactly where I planted it.

I do have real weeds (and quite a few of them) in the garden and flower beds by this time of the summer. They are definitely the wrong plants in the wrong places – but I’ll work on removing them along and along.

Thinking about weeds brought this Scripture to mind: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

We can be in the wrong place if we’re out of the will of God (and that’s a different blog post). But, if we’re following Him, God may choose a number of different places for us. Because He chooses them, they’re the right places. I believe we can properly expand the verse above to include not just whatever we do, but to add wherever we are.

Even if we seem to be in the wrong place, we can be like the plants above that aren’t called weeds anymore. They became welcome companions because in their beauty, they reflected the glory of God.