Experiencing Eden

 

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1

... we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

II Peter 3:13

You know the feeling that you just need to get out and away, just forget about everything and have a day of refreshing? Yeah, we all know that feeling. We decided to take a day trip just to get away. My husband and I  rambled around buying fall flowers and discovering a little new territory but after lunch, we ended up heading toward Cataloochee. 

We spent about thirty minutes winding back through the mountains on a dirt road finally topping out the ridge and making that final left turn. The road led us to scenic vistas, trails, old barns, and a settlement with a church, a school, and an old house. The road to the house was washed out so it was only open to foot traffic. We walked maybe a quarter of a mile along the road passing grassy pastures and signs to old graveyards before we came to a huge barn and a footbridge on the left across the creek to an early 20th Century house. An older lady sat on the bridge picking grasses and platting a crown like we used to do as kids. Her husband was walking back from the house. We spoke as we passed and ambled on through the yard and the house, taking pictures of butterflies on wildflowers and listening to goldfinches twitter about the thistle seeds. 

Now, the gentleman sat on the bridge and pointed with a stick, talking with his wife about the birds. "I've never seen a yellow bird like that." There was also a cedar waxwing, a bird I'd rarely seen, joining the goldfinches in the flowers draping over the water. We enjoyed a neighborly talk. I just wanted to cook a pone of cornbread and get some cold buttermilk from the spring house for our supper, but that wasn't to be in this 21st century.

The walk back to the truck was hot but pleasant. As we passed a field near the creek, I saw her. "Bear!" That's not my usual reaction to a bear but the unexpected sighting had startled me and apparently, I startled her too. She raised up on her hind legs and looked in our direction while I fumbled with my camera. She must have decided she and her cub might need to head toward the creek.

Now, in the road near the creek stood a big bull elk. The trail signs say to stay fifty yards away. Well now what, with a mama bear to our left and a bull elk to our right? He noticed we needed to pass so he kindly wandered off into the woods out of our path. 

When I got back to the truck I noticed a type of euphoria. Actually, I had been experiencing it most of the afternoon. There was joy and peace there on the mountain. There was excitement in the birds and bears and elk. Maybe it was because I'm part of the older folks my thoughts drifted to the future when God places me in the new heavens and new earth, a re-creation of the Garden of Eden. I feel I got to experience just a little bit of that garden this week. The Lord surely knew I needed it on a hot summer afternoon. 

Heavenly Father, thank you for preserving just a tiny bit of your Garden of Eden for us to experience. It was an amazing walk to see the animals, respecting each other's territory, and without fear for either of us. Thank you for your promise that one day You will once again restore a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness will prevail, a place to enjoy others, the plants, and the animals. I wonder if in the cool of the day You will walk among us so we can experience that fellowship with You, our Creator as Adam and Eve once did. I'm certainly looking forward to that day but until then I am thankful for a quiet walk in the forest. In Jesus's name. Amen. 

Hey Kids:

Do you have a favorite quiet spot?

Our lives are filled with hurry and noise. It tends to busy our lives and distract our minds. 

This week take a few minutes to walk in the quiet of a park or forest. Sit beside a stream and listen. Watch the insects, birds, and animals. 

Maybe you'll want to take along a camera or a sketch pad or paper to write a short poem or story. 

Maybe you'll just want to whisper a prayer of thanks that this is not the end but a moment to take a glimpse into our future. 

The Thanksgiving Miracle

  

O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. ~Psalms 105:1

You know the picture in our minds we all get of the Indian brave who walks into the Pilgrim village in the spring of 1621 to show the Pilgrims how to plant corn, and beans, and pumpkin? Wasn’t his name Squanto? Or didn’t anyone ever tell you about Squanto?

Happy Independence Weekend

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. II Timothy 3:15

The Walton’s is one of my favorite TV shows. It reminds me of the way I worked together with my grandparents when I was a child. Friday, I got to have a little Gramma time with my family. My grandson brought his summer assignments to God’s Two Acres today. One of his math project choices was to find a recipe, double it, execute it, and take a picture of the final project to turn in when school begins in August. Chandler loves to cook. Desserts are naturally his favorite, so I gave him the recipe book and told him to look for something that interested him. He pulled out pages of his favorite sounding recipes and then came across a picture of an Uncle Sam cake.

“You know, Gramma, I wouldn’t have to make the Uncle Same cake. Maybe I could make a flag,” he said. Hmmm. How many ways had I seen flag cakes done? Doubling a sheet cake might present a problem. I didn’t have pan that big! Then we came up with the idea of making a cupcake flag. He doubled the ingredients on the recipe page and we laid out a plan, drawing circles for cupcakes deciding which ones would be what color.

We worked together gathering ingredients and mixing batter for the first round of cupcakes. While the first 22 were cooling, he loaded cupcake papers and mixed batter independently. I gathered the ingredients for icing. He was doing great for a rising third grader.

When all the cupcakes were cool, we lined them up in an array according to the plan and began to frost each one, beginning with the white stripes. Then we did blue and then the red. Ooops, no red food coloring. Hmmm, what to do? Colored sugar. That worked well until we ran out of red sugar. We still had quite a few cupcakes left. Red sprinkles, how could we use those? What a mix of red decorations. We moved the variety around until we had a pleasing mix. Picture snapped, printed and placed in a sleeve for school. He was ready for his Independence Day Cookout and he’d knocked out a school project as well.

I think he had done much more. He had begun to learn to read a recipe and follow directions. He learned to double fractions. He gained confidence and independence. It was a lot of fun for everyone, even those who just stopped by to beg for the extras. Their compliments made the little chef happy. Two generations working together. It felt better than Walton’s Mountain.

Training our children in the little things is important to help them on the road to maturity. Whether it’s cooking, making beds, gardening, or doubling fractions, the closeness of adults and children working together makes the important learning enjoyable.

But what about the spiritual learning/training? In our rushing and hurrying we tend to have our independent devotion time, failing to include others of our family. Even if we try to make a family time, it’s a rush between red-lights on the way to school and work. How much attention and training are we actually giving to our children much less to God to whom we are trying to devote time (devo-tion). How do you teach independent Bible study when we’re not looking at the Word, not flipping pages together? How are we teaching focusing on God when we are having to “watch and pray” we don’t get run over in morning traffic? Waking up ten minutes early or going to bed ten minutes late won’t harm anyone. It may even be beneficial. If we turn off the distractions of our modern world and have a little God time with family, we can help our children along the way to spiritual maturity. It may even feel better than grace around the table on Walton’s Mountain.

How do you carve out time for your family to spend together with God? Won’t you share your secrets with us this week? We could all use some shared insight.

Hey Kids:

Do you have a favorite recipe you would like to double and have twice as much?

Have you ever participated in a Bible Sword Drill?

Do you have a favorite thing you like to do with your parents or grandparents?

Has Grandpa taught you to whittle and play mubbledy-peg yet?

Blessings,

Gail

Who Wants a Glass of Milk When You Can Have Steak?

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. I Peter 2:2

As new Christians, we should desire the milk of the word, the things that help us grow. Just as we wean our children from milk and begin to feed them vegetables and meat, so we as Christians should reach a point where we desire the grown up, meat, the steak of scriptures.

Hebrews 5:14 says: But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

I often wondered why daily devotionals with one scripture verse and a blurb of application did not satisfy me. Everyone else used those devotionals. Then I realized I had been reading a chapter every day from the time I was saved at 15 until I was about 20. That devotion to scripture had gotten me through the Bible several times. A boy got in the way, I'll have to admit, and it was not until after we married and had a child that I resumed my habit.

I didn't say all that to brag on myself, but to encourage you to go deeper in the Word. I want to change the standard devotion format of this site to something deeper, but still be able to share it in a family devotions context. I'd like for you too, to share the things you are discovering through deeper study, through our comments section. We can all learn and grow from each other. Next week I want to begin in Genesis and hopefully go chapter by chapter, yes even the begats, to help us all grow with the meat of the Word. I'd like to use the SOAP model to help us dig deeper.

S - Scripture
O - Observation
A - Application
P - Prayer

Lord Jesus, as we begin this study anew, help us to share the meat of Your Word with one another that we all may grow stronger and be better servants in Your kingdom. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.