Tag: grandchildren

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Laborers In His Garden

krisshetter 
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”  Colossians 3:23-24

In my own sanctification journey, I thought that I’d come to a good place to not have to work so hard at doing God’s work.  When my mom died last year, I was suddenly given the role as faithful steward in caring for my dad.  A new “garden” had been planted for me to tend.

There’s quite a lot of weeding and tending going on right now in this new garden.  The Holy Spirit allows me plenty of opportunities to go backwards in my journey.  Seemingly endless doctor visits, hours long emergency room trips, and being the mental keeper of all the various issues he has at this time.  On top of it, I did the one thing I never wanted to do but realized we had to do  – place my dad in a short term health facility while he receives ongoing medical treatment.  

God rarely seems to give us these more difficult tasks to perform alone.  He has blessed me with wonderful family and friends who have pulled on their gardening gloves as well.  An opportunity to make this a community garden filled with love, compassion, humility and service.

Each day, after tending this garden I give thanks to the Lord for all He has given and shown me.  I give thanks for the friendly staff at all the places, even when things don’t go as planned.  I give thanks for the knowledge He gave me about His character – that He would never leave me or forsake me.  Thanks for the Holy Spirit teaching me patience, kindness and compassion.  And I give thanks for each opportunity to share the Gospel and God’s Word with my atheist father.

You may recall I wrote a few weeks ago that during Covid I sought the advice of a Christian counselor in answering the question: How do I honor my mother and father who have rejected me?

 I never dreamed He would answer my question with the great responsibility He has now gifted me. He gave me baby steps to steward my new self, given through faith in His Son.  He planted forgiveness and love in me to tend. 

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” – Matthew 25:21

My friends, on this journey we are never done in our gardens until our last breath.  Until then we are to plant the seeds with our children, grandchildren or the children at our churches.  We tend to our gardens by helping others see the weeds growing in their lives – and we ask them to help us in turn.  

We may even need to spray for those pesky bugs in our midst.  Pastors, teachers, and elders who try and introduce words counter to the truth of God.  And we join together to celebrate the harvest.  Friends, families, and acquaintances who ask to be baptized in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In my favorite “go to” book of the Bible, James, we are reminded to be faithful stewards of God’s garden.  Faithful doers of the Word so that the Word is not forgotten, in ourselves and in others to come.  

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do."  James 1: 22-25

Jesus lamented the lack of garden laborers in Matthew 9:35-38 when He said, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.”  The Lord is signing up people like you and me for the most important job in the history of mankind.  People who know the Word, who have experienced His presence in times of trial, people who are obedient to His Word.  

It’s time to gather your tools and get to work.

30daysofpraise, Bible, bible study, Christian, Christian Church, christian encouragement, christian men, christian parenting, Christian women, Faith, Jesus, Jesus Follower, prayer, religion, Transformation Prayer, Uncategorized, wisdom

Knitted by God

krisshetter 
"I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Isaiah 43:6-7

I’ve been thinking alot about babies lately — not because I want another (I’m way past that time!). Yes, the talk of Jesus coming to earth as a baby has been in my mind’s forefront but also my two-year old grandson and six-week old granddaughter had been staying with us for Christmas. Having had two daughters of my own I still find myself fascinated with pregnancy, childbirth, and the ever-changing process of growing up. 

Even while I was pregnant years ago, I thought the concept of having a human being inside me was very odd and alien-like. The miracle of life seemed just that, a miracle. While too many people in our societies want to pretend that a life growing inside a woman is not … a life, I remain in awe of how a tiny swimming seed can push its way into a tiny egg and an explosion of life begins. What a wondrous miracle God came up with to continue His creation!

For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Psalm 139:13-15

While scientists pride themselves on the basic “how’s” of the creation of life they can never fully answer the “why’s.” Why does the tiny sperm swim up to the egg? Why does it find the egg and push its way through? Why do the cells begin to split? Why do the cells stop making new features of whatever creature they are creating? 

My pondering led me to a different question about this glorious, God-given miracle we call human life. When does the mystery of consciousness begin? Any small amount of research will unveil the biases of scientists working in this arena. The idea of God’s creation of consciousness is seen as “make believe” (as written over and over by Dr. Ralph Lewis in his 5 part series in Psychology Today). Yet, even after studying this topic for many years, evolutionary biologists and psychologist can only make conjectures based on theories of animals that lived thousands if not millions of years ago. They reject the one, most simple answer – God’s miraculous work in us.

I did find an article on when the journey to consciousness may begin in babies. Again, however, it is based on the idea of what scientists presume must be in place physically before a human is deemed able to have consciousness.

But when does the magical journey of consciousness begin? Consciousness requires a sophisticated network of highly interconnected components, nerve cells. Its physical substrate, the thalamo-cortical complex that provides consciousness with its highly elaborate content, begins to be in place between the 24th and 28th week of gestation. Roughly two months later synchrony of the electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythm across both cortical hemispheres signals the onset of global neuronal integration. Thus, many of the circuit elements necessary for consciousness are in place by the third trimester. 

Christof Koch, When Does Consciousness Arise in Human Babies? Scientific America

Friends, our glorious God, the creator of all things seen and UNSEEN has given humans the gift of consciousness. That, in turn, gifts us with creativity, planning, memory, higher emotions, and more. We can no more truly guess when this gift has been delivered to us than we can know when our souls have entered into our cells. Of course, many evolutionary biologists and atheists don’t believe we have souls either. 

If we look at life simply as a compilation of mechanical-like parts joined together (somehow for some reason) to create a two-legged creature that can speak, then we ignore all the beautiful intricacies of our human existence. The nuances of love, of sadness, of joy, of peace, of fear, and of reverence. 

Our Christian faith is not ignorant of the “how” we are knitted together. We can accept all the biological facts of our human bodies. We just have the key to why it all works. A God to whom we give all glory for being the greatest scientist and creator for all time.

All glory and honor and praise to God. Amen.