A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Garden

We made a quick trip to check on the garden today so that Claire could go with Mimi to a wedding. So in between the rain and thunder Charlotte and I tried to do some weeding in the garden. We got just a little bit done before we had to call it quits...have I mentioned before how much she loves to play in the dirt as long as her feet don't get dirty? We are there with our hoes trying to weed around the plants and all of a sudden I look and see that she has her croc of and is trying to brush off her foot, but she can't balance and then puts her foot right in the middle of a big pile of wet Georgia dirt! Her facial expression was hilarious!

The evening was topped off with spending time with Grandmother and Mimi before heading home! Those girls love their grandparents.

Being out in nature always reminds me of God's creation and his recreation. Jesus is the one through whom the creator made all things, and he is now the one through whom the same God has reconciled all things to himself. N. T. Wright

Wind in a Net

Harrod and Funck, an acoustic duo that I discovered through two friends in college, Matt Kitchell and Jimbo Bass, quickly won a permanent place in my music rotation for their incredible skill at the craft of songwriting. They are able to tell stories, weave images of life, love, and at times faith into intriguing songs that make a person think.
The songwriting duo both graduated from Wheaton College just outside of Chicago before making an impact on the folk/americana scene in the late 1990s especially in the greater Boston area. Cyd and I like their music so much we used one of their songs for a slideshow we made for our wedding reception.

The past few weeks have been difficult in terms of how much the impact of Cyd's dad, Ted, being gone is really having on us. Charlotte still looks for him whenever we get to their house. A few weeks ago we put the garden in that he has always done, of course not quite like he would have done it, I'm sure. Those few days as I was working in the yard and garden, this song kept playing over and over again in my head. The garden in one sense is a sacred space for me, for us...it is a reminder of our dependence on God to provide rain, sun, and food for us, which in turn points to our greater need for reconciliation to God. The ancient Celts have this understanding of "thin places" those places where heaven and earth seem to meet and the presence of God is perhaps more evident to humans. I don't think that the garden is where God's presence is more evident, perhaps it is just the tool that God uses to open our hearts to his work in our lives. To take something so earthly and then transform it into something sacred, something that points us to the greater reality of God's presence with us no matter what it is we are facing. That is after all, what Jesus did when he took the bread and the wine and infused it with new meaning that would forever change the way we look at those two things.

It's funny to me how God seems to have this passion for taking the ordinary things of life and transforming them! I guess that's one of the reason God has such an affinity for rescuing stubborn, stiff-necked, humanity from our sin and own devices.

The song below is always a reminder of the presence of God in my life and the world around me, even, perhaps mostly when I feel the furthest away from God. I think the song speaks for itself so I won't add any more since I've already written a chapter.

"Wind in A Net"

These days my heart can be black as a raven's wing.
But soon I'll run full circle, let the day begin.
Will you whisper in my ear?
Exchange my small coin fears
For the only rumor I hope is true.

My grandfather told me once, "Stand close to me."
The day he returned to the earth I feared the world would freeze.
Lowered in the cold, cold ground,
His gentle voice still the sweetest sound,
Please let the rumors be true.

Could have been asleep
But I swore that I saw you walking on a stone still sea.

The days, they will come, the days they'll go.
At times they'll make as much sense as a summer snow.
Catch the wind in a net,
Lest we forget
Impossible rumors could be true.

Could have been asleep but I swore that I saw you walking.
Could have been dreaming but I swore that I saw you walking on a stone still sea.

Now it's the fall, killing time in this holy place.
Suddenly everything is spilling with your grace.
Will you whisper in my ear?
Exchange my small coin fears
For the only rumor I hope is true.

Could have been dreaming...
Could have been asleep but I swore that I saw you walking.
Could have been dreaming but I swore that I saw you walking on a stone still sea.
By Jason Harrod and Brian Funck
http://www.jasonharrod.com/
http://www.brianfunck.com/index.html

Some Recent Pics

Our Garden

Saturdays at our house are often spent outside. We cut the grass, pull weeds, cut roses and camellias, water plants, fertilize plants. Well a few weeks ago we potted some herbs, bell pepper and tomato plants. We have toyed with the idea of putting an actual garden somewhere in our back yard. As you know the first step is to break up the soil and get it ready for the seeds. Claire and I did that Saturday with only a grubbing hoe and her shovel she got in a kids meal at Chick-fil-A. Fun doesn't even begin to describe it! If we can get just a few meals worth of squash, cucumber, and zucchini, then it will all be worth it, but right now I am extremely sore.
This was the best image I could find of the grubbing hoe I used, perhaps because the one I used is easily older than I am. I'm not sure if our garden will look like this one, but here's wishing it might!