A blessed event in my garden bird chalet with the
entrance into our world of two baby tree swallows. Alas the family has vacated
these premises
already for parts unknown, leaving a poignant note that their sojourn with me
was so short and a reminder that our Lord knows their destiny and cares for
them as He does for me.
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice! Let your gentleness
be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by
prayer and thanksgiving let your requests be known to God: and the peace of
God, which surpasses all
understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally,
brethren, whatever things are true,
whatever things are noble, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of
good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praise-worthy
meditate on these things. But my God
will supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. Paul to the Philippian church
4:4-8, 19.
Summer has made its grand entrance here
topside of our
planet and with gratitude for abundant rains, lush crops of corn, soybeans,
alfalfa, and hay fields in the making are gloriously green here in the
Shenandoah. My routine passages along
the byways of Rockingham County find me watching for the familiar wildflowers,
birds, and wildlife.
In my very own garden, echinachea, zinnias,
verbena,
shasta daisies, lantana, yarrow, mammoth sunflowers, tickseed and
coreopsis. All reminders of our
Creator’s superb artistry.
This
commentary from a half-century ago
rings with contemporary meaning for me.
“Today as
never before there is being laid upon the heart and conscience of the Church
the burden of evangelism....Today the demand is more radical and basic. It is
spiritual resurrection: it is –under
God—the creating of life. To confront a
bewildered and disheveled age with the fact of Christ, to thrust upon its
confusion the creative word of the Cross and smite its disenchantment with the
glory of the Resurrection –this is the urgent, overruling task. “Son
of man, can these bones live?”....There
is, therefore, no place today for a Church that is not aflame with the Spirit
who is the Lord and Giver of life, nor any value in a theology which is not
passionately missionary. If there throbs
through the Church the vitality of a living union with Christ – and apart from
this the Church has no claim to exist, no right to preach, it is merely
cumbering the ground – if the Church can indeed say “It is not I who live, it
is Christ who lives in me,” then the dark demonic forces of the age have met
their match, and the thrust of life is stronger than the drift of death. A Church
that knows its Lord and is possessed
by its Gospel cannot but propagate creatively the life that it has found. A
Christian who is taking his faith seriously
cannot but evangelize.” James S.
Stewart, in his book A Faith to Proclaim.
National Geographic Camp on Mt. Everest
