Blessings from God – Moon Flowers

Moon Flower with Bugs

I found this one hiding in the bushes out behind the garden. I didn’t think we would have any this year but there it was! (and actually another one is now blooming on the fence.)

I don’t know what kind of bugs are on the flower, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s still spectacular. And wonderful is appropriate too. It’s one of the wonderful things our Lord has done.

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.” Psalms 9:1 ESV

Blessings from God – More Butterflies

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

The nights are cooling off a little, but it is still warm during the day. So the butterflies aren’t completely gone yet.

Moth on Duranta

Neither are the moths (I don’t know what kind this one is, but it is neat looking). And the closeup of the Duranta does show the blue color well.

Monarch Butterfly

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 ESV

And then, everything else beautiful.

Things Change – Jesus Christ Doesn’t

Onions With Pivot Irrigation

Things change and the process of life moves on.

When we first moved here, to the “middle of nowhere”, the field across the road was just that – a field that was planted each year with varying crops according to the planned rotation. The owners later divided it – leaving one portion for crops and the other as a pasture for cows.

Early this year, the pasture grass was plowed up, a pivot irrigation system was installed, and Sweet Vidalia Onions were planted. The onions have since been replaced with peanuts, which are ready to be turned over for harvesting.

The land right around our house was initially a pasture also. (I’ll have to remember to post at some point about the joys of having cows around your house – especially when they belong to someone else). Most of that pasture was replaced with planted pine trees about 20 years ago and, since then, we were blessed to purchase part of that land.

At the end of last year, we had the pines cut down and now we’re trying to decide what to do with the land. I have set aside about an acre as a new “landscape” area. I had a few hardwood trees planted to get it started, but no long-range plans have been made.

But, whether or not, I make and carry out long range landscape plans, something will happen in that acre. After the harvest across the road, the peanuts may be replaced with onions again, but a different crop may be planted. If left alone, the other part of our planted pine area will re-seed itself from all the remaining pines in the vicinity.

I’ve made this ramble (hopefully a bit interesting) to illustrate the change that happens around us as time passes. Even leaving things alone, results in some type of change.

But, the point I’m heading to is that during this relatively short time described here, and backwards and forwards into eternity, our Lord and Savior has not changed one bit. And, He never will. As things change, and the process of life moves on – often in ways we don’t prefer – that is a wonderful assurance we can hold to.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 ESV

Blessings from God in the Mist

Evening Mist

My wife, Sharon, took this photo earlier this evening. We had a wonderful, unexpected rain shower. After it moved on, it left behind this mist over the peanut field across the road.

Mist or fog can obscure our view of the landscape, but it also has a beauty of its own. In this case, the beauty is not only visual, but in the reminder of the much needed rain shower that God had blessed us with.

When our vision is obscured, we should remember our blessings and what we’re looking for, and, especially, what we will eventually see.

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV