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The Gardener

Spring has always been a time for planting seeds and preparing the soil for gardens.  Our family had a vegetable garden and each year we made sure that it was planted by Good Friday. I am not sure if that was just a tradition passed down through the family or if it was tied to the Farmer’s Almanac, but it was what we did each and every year. Gardens and their bounty form a big part of my the summer memories. Cucumber and mayonnaise sandwiches on white bread or tomato sandwiches so juicy that you had to eat them standing over the kitchen sink were a daily occurrence that marked those summer months. Recently my brother began his days of quarantine by tilling up his side yard to plant an enormous garden. Sports had ended because of Covid-19, so his favorite pastime had come to an abrupt and disappointing halt. He took this time to go back to his roots and be a gardener once again. Growing up, he was constantly outside digging in the dirt and playing with the metal John Deere tractors in our backyard. I remember once he created a mini-farm by our pump house using his toy tractors. He marked off neat rows, planted corn seeds and created an irrigation system for his miniature field. He was in his element then and now, because farming and gardening is in his DNA. Actually, gardening in all of our DNA.

By |2020-05-11T10:06:15-04:00May 11th, 2020|Women at the Cross|

Stones of Remembrance

There are so many unknowns right now, but nothing about them is new to God. Recently, I was looking back over family updates from years back. In 2010, we didn’t know when we would be moving, where Jonathan would be working, or when baby #5, our sweet Josiah, would be born. It seemed we had more unknown than known.  What I can tell you about the unknowns, uncertain and even scary days, is that the closeness of God is palpable. It is a closeness that brings tears and love, patience and peace, along with a flood of knowing He is all that matters. Oftentimes, I find rereading updates I have shared to be so helpful, because I have forgotten those times of God’s faithfulness. I realized it is no accident that in the Old Testament when leadership is changing hands as one is about to die, there is a reciting of the whole story of all that God has done. We think we won’t forget, but we do. And I have learned the best way to remember is to write them down. 

By |2020-05-08T17:21:05-04:00April 27th, 2020|Women at the Cross|
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