REST SECURE KNOWING THIS......

"The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Deuteronomy 33:27

THUS SAYETH THE LORD......

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, the flames will not set you ablaze."
Isaiah 43:2

RESPONSE TO "REWIRED"

Thank you for your visits and your kind words. Your response to the beauty of the clematis resting in a glass bowl seemed so very meaningful.."peaceful" (see July 25).

That, coupled with the idea that perhaps "slowing down" (July 26) might be a good thing, brought to my remembrance a bronze plaque embedded in the very heavily traveled sidewalk of the Seattle downtown waterfront. I stopped to read: "Beauty is that to which your mind can pass, and having done so, rest for a spell".

I thought this beauty captured at Butchart Gardens was appropriate to these thoughts.

To God be the glory!

SLOW DOWN AND......

"Savor little glimpses of God's goodness and His majesty, thankful for the gift of them:
winding pathways through the woods

a bright green canopy overhead
and dappled sunshine falling all around,warm upon our faces." From "God's Celebrating Grace"

BRINGING THE GARDEN IN

"The goodness of God is infinitely more wonderful than we will ever be able to comprehend." A.W.Tozer

BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED

I feed the birds sunflower seeds. I always have a nice crop of beautiful sunflowers from the seeds that fall to the ground.

This one fell between the bricks.....but the sun beckoned and the seed pushed through. Yet another lesson from the garden.

The following is an excerpt from the weekly column that Don Kuehle writes for a local Cape County paper. Don is a retired United Methodist minister, an avid gardener, a wonderful guy, a servant of God and a cousin of mine (well, Harold's actually, but I choose to claim him and his family).

His column is titled GOOD THINKING!

I share with you from this week's offering:

"Life is a Garaden; God is the Master Gardener!

Working in his Heavenly Greenhouse, God developed a myriad varieties of plants, AND peoples.

God, like any good gardener, knows that the joy of having a garden is to see the seeds grow, to harvest a plentiful crop, AND to share one's abundance with others!

And, like any gardener, God takes life seriously, but not too seriously. God loves a good laugh; in fact, it was God who invented laughter. And a good hearty laugh is good for our health.

Soooo, enjoy this Garden-of Life that God has given us! Grow and blossom where God has planted you. Cultivate and weed your life so that many people will benefit from the good harvest you produce, and God will be pleased!"

Don Kuehle

And may I add this: You will be blessed!

Enjoy this day!

MORE FROM BUTCHART GARDENS

A stroll through the rest of the Gardens left you bedazzled as to where to point the camera! Here are just a few.




c
Lunch in the Blue Poppy Restaurant

And to top off the afternoon, a visit from Mary Poppins!

A Big Hole? No Problem!

Welcome to:














It all began with an idea by Jennie Butchart to beautify a worked-out limestone quarry which had supplied her husband's nearby Portland cement plant.
















Add a bit of imagination, a lot of hard work and 100 years, and this is the result.


More pictures tomorrow.

FLYING NORTH

Going to the Great Northwest.
Check back on July 17.
Will have pictures! 

SIMPLICITY II

"The greatest honor we can give God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of His love."

Julian of Norwich 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!

A Declaration:

When in the Course of human events it beomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

A Question:

On the south banks of Washington's Tidal Basin, Thomas Jefferson still speaks:

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?"

A Prayer:

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her,
And guide her
Through the night
With the Light from above.

From the mountains,
To the prairies,
To the ocean
White with foam:
God Bless America,
My home sweet home.

SOMETHING WITHIN

"There is a native, elemental homing instinct in our souls which turns us to God as naturally as the flower turns to the sun." Rufus M. Jon