“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15
Yo howdy All Y’all! If you’re reading, we each woke up this morning! Again! Fearless thru the Valley of the Shadow of death. “This is the day Creation hath made, let us rejoice in it!” Psalm 118:24
In our rejoicing, may we respect our responsibilities to carefully work daily in accordance to the guidance provided by our Christ, Jesus: honor Creation by loving created. Our little blue dot Earth is the only garden we know, and here we are, put all together on a singular planet of miraculous life provided with incomprehensible abundance to work with and care for.
Some of us woke up today and then engaged with information about events, actions and considered possibilities “Next Door”, locally, within defined borders of Texas, our nation and news around the world. Information we need to know and engage with, but also information that distracts us, the false witness veiling from us the damages being done by not more equitably sharing in “dominion…over all the earth… and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Genesis 1:28
Embracing each other as a Disciples of Christ congregation, – including in our embrace of congregations of Koenig Lane, Hyde Park, University and Bethany Disciples – we seek to practice in the light Christ Jesus has given to our individual paths. Our pastors are encouraging us to do even more now, inspiring us to be more as our Church and as we each engage with others where we are in this moment now.
Where we gather together at our physical and architectural Sanctuary, we also nourish our neighbors. Our petite pantry is so quickly emptied each filling by hunger that food can be put into it at any time. Please bring something to stock in it. On three sides of our physical property, we have food growing now within reach. Food is often picked daily by housed and unhoused neighbors. Our formerly fallow ground is now soil that is producing abundant weekly harvests of garden greens, herbs, peas and peppers. A first – soon will be a harvest of ten good-sized winter-grown beets! A couple beets will be left in the ground to continue producing edible greens.
Both pole and bush (replacing the beets) beans have sprouted; we should begin harvesting in June. We’ll have cherry tomatoes ripe and several different types of peppers beginning mid-April. The okra, surprisingly, has yet to sprout. We’ll watch what happens with the frost-bit broccoli and Brussels sprouts.
We have different weeds blooming this Spring – as my Grandpa Davis said, “a weed is but a flower out of place.” Accepting God’s Grace. Last Spring’s abundance of pink primrose is presently reduced by last summer’s hot drought, but the blue curls, multi-colored firewheels, white guara, and purple wine cups reseeded widely and have begun blooming in some surprising spots. What was single plants grew into clumps and are becoming cascading plantings of color, texture and fragrance. Some of the flowering natives are perennial, some reseed somewhere annually. Our gardens each year form into diverse and inclusive colonies of textures and colors that nourish our neighbors and contribute to prepared tables.
Be well share joy
Phil
