Lilacs, Mountains, Meadows, and nature's Glory give praise to God On High. So too should our lives. If you wish to find out more, follow this Blog with me as I lift God's Holy Scriptures - the Bible - Psalm 138.2 I will worship toward your Holy Temple and praise your Name for thy lovingkindness and thy truth: for thou hast magnified THY WORD above all thy NAME.
NOVEMBER 18, 2017
WINTER'S HERE - LET'S SMELL THE FLOWERS OF HOPE
WINTER IS HERE - LET'S SMELL
THE FLOWERS
OF HOPE
LET'S START WITH A CUP OF COFFEE AND A DONUT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MY FIRST FLOWER FOR YOU IS
THE FLOWER OF
FOR-GET-ME-NOTS
With for-get-me-nots
I remember the joys of past Christmases
and Holidays
with trembling, but with a sense
of Thankfulness I had those joys.
This was a photo taken in 2008 of my husband
and I. We had 52 years together
Friends, lovers, and Believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we had so many times of
sweet fragrance.\
So mull over where your heart is today,
and remember
your FOR GET ME NOT times.
-----
MY NEXT FLOWER FOR YOU
IS THE
LILY OF THE VALLEY
FRAGRANT, TINY LITTLE FLOWERS
THAT HIBERNATE ALL WINTER,
SPROUTING A ROOT SYSTEM
THAT BEATS THE BAND
IN PRODUCING
HEALTHY SPROUTS FOR THE EARLY SPRING.
IN WINTER MONTHS WE END UP
WITH A BIT OF TIME
TO REMINISCE. I USE THIS PICTURE
OF MY GRANDMOTHER'S COLLEGE YEARS
BECAUSE I REMEMBER AS A 13 YEAR OLD
HOW "SPECIAL" IT WAS TO THINK
JUST MAYBE I MIGHT GO TO COLLEGE..
IT WAS AT THIS TIME
THAT MY GRANDMOTHER SPENT
THE TIME LOOKING AT THE PHOTOS
WITH ME.
LATER, HAVING MARRIED, I
RECEIVED A BOX WITH THE PHOTOS
IN IT. THEY WERE MINE TO KEEP,
BUT I KNEW SOMEDAY I WOULD
SHARE THEM WITH OTHERS
WHO, LIKE ME, WOULD BE
AWESTRUCK AT THE "DAYS"
GONE BY.
WHAT LILACS DO YOU HAVE IN
YOUR LILAC CORNER? IN MINE I
FIND HIDDEN TREASURES THAT MY
HEART KNOWS IT IS COMFORTED BY
FRAGRANCES OF LOVE GIVEN ME IN MY
LIFETIME.
-------------------------------
MY LAST FLOWER FOR YOU IS
THE BEARDED IRIS,
A ROYAL STEADFAST, AND ALWAYS
A PROFUSION OF BLOOMS MIXED IN
A BEVY OF GREEN STEMS
IRIS BULBS CAN BE HARVESTED
AFTER THE BLOOM IS GONE, DID YOU KNOW?
TAKE THE LITTLE CORM THAT IS LEFT
AFTER THE PETALS FALL OFF,
AND LET THEM DRY ON PAPER
TOWELS AND ON NEWSPAPERS.
STORE THEM IN TINS, OR ALUMINUM FOIL.
EACH CORM WILL HAVE A NUMBER
OF SEEDS IN IT
EACH SEED CAN PRODUCE A different color
for your garden.
This is a photo of the famous HAIRPIN TURN
ON THE MOHAWK TRAIL
near ADAMS and NORTH ADAMS, MA.
I remember my parents
driving me from North Adams to Adams.
I remember the times my family took
time to go see relatives
far away
The BEARDED IRIS plant reminds me
of the stately STATURE OF PEOPLE
IN MY FAMILY WHO I MARKED AS BEING
VERY IMPORTANT TO ME
AS BEING MY EXAMPLES
AS BEING FRUITFUL BLOOMS OF
A WIDE VARIETY OF COLORS,
WITH LOTS OF green green green
surrounding the blossoms.
In my life I need
the
FOR GET ME NOTS
THE LILY OF THE VALLEYS,
AND
THE BEARDED IRISES.
have fun
with your
winter blues.
Find
flowers
to
help
you cherish and grow
and become
to the little ones growing up
underneath you
wonderful fruitful examples
of God's Blessings.
AND DON'T FORGET TO ENJOY THAT COFFEE AND DOUGHNUT ! !
THE FRAGRANCE OF LIFE'S JOYS
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FRAGRANCE OF LIFE'S JOYS
The joy of knowing Jesus is in my life brings me
into the Garden of Prayer
As I pray, I know that the Lord Jesus Christ is my strength,
my guide, and my shield. He is the Rock of my salvation.
He is the Only Light in this dark world.
The flowers of the Lord's Garden are more precious than
anything we could ever plant. God is at work in your life and
mine, helping us cope with everything that comes into our life.
John 15.7 Jesus tells us that "if you abide in me, and
my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it
shall be done to you.
Let us go on, letting the Father prune us and clip our branches that we might have FRUIT, MORE FRUIT, AND MUCH FRUIT. Let us go on, that we might have the J O Y of Jesus love in our life. The fragrance of lilacs is sweet, and that of roses poignant, but the fragrance of God's Love is ever more rewarding.
LILAC TIME
There is not any way to explain the beauty of May Lilacs in Bloom. The fragrance of their blossoms wafts from where they are to far distant when the wind blows. Early Spring showers make the roots dig down deeper and the blossoms florish.
A WONDERFUL HOPE WE HAVE IN CHRIST JESUS WHO GAVE HIMSELF ONCE FOR ALL, THAT WE MIGHT BE WASHED CLEAN BY THE BLOOD . HE WAS OUR PASSOVER LAMB.
So too, is the TIME in our life for blooms. The winter is over. The roots are digging down deep into the ground, reaching for nutrients in the soil. Fresh rain spills out and freshens the ground and the tips of the branches on the Lilac shrubs begin to flourish out, little nubbings at first, with tiny sproutlings of leaves.
During the winter months the branches of the Lilac went into dormancy - a good sleep for the winter.
We too need sleep times. And then the warmth of spring sun and Spring rains brings on the new awakening of the Lilac.
Paul, in the book of II Corinthians, states "Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all Comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God. And whether we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; or whether we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you also be of the consolation. [II Cor 1.2 - 7]
Further, Paul goes on to say in chapter 2 of II Corinthians, "Now thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest [known] the savor [fragrance] of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are to God a sweet fragrance of Christ in those that are saved, and in those that perish. To the one [those that are perishing] we are the fragrance of death unto death, and to the other [those that are saved] the fragrance of life unto life." [II Corinthians 2.14 - 17
May I explain to you what I think this portion of scripture is saying?
In my mind's eye, Paul here is talking about the FRAGRANCE, THE SAVOR, THE AROMA
OF SOMETHING THAT SPEAKS LIFE TO ONE, AND DEATH TO ANOTHER. It can be, I think, much like the Flowers that we decorate out homes and businesses with. We cannot get enough of lovely flowers with fragrant smells lightening up our lives. Also, another thing I liken this to, is the aroma and sweet smells of something cooking on the stove in our home kitchen or roasting in the oven. The smell of a cooking turkey or a ham in the oven can also be very tantilizing.
However, the same flowers that we love so well in our homes and in our yards can be a signal of difficulty for others. Example? At a funeral, the FLOWERS speak of the sorrow and sympathy people express at the loss of their loved one. Yet it is a strange thing. The flower bouquets with their aroma can be speaking to you and I of the joy awaiting us in Heaven. Life can be dark and dreary, but with the joy of knowing our Life will continue with the promise "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" we think of the fragrance and aroma from Lilacs, from flowers as bespeaking the beauty of Life Eternal that awaits the Believer.
For the one who is not a Believer, and who is one of the "walking dead" spiritually the flowers at a funeral is only a fragrance of death and it brings no comfort to that person. When there is no hope after life, the flowers can bring only a fragrance of "death unto death" .
The scripture goes on to tell us in II Corinthians 5.1- 8 this grand and glorious statement:
We know that if our earthly house of our tabernacle
[our body] were dissolved, we have a building of God,
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed
with our house which is from heaven.
If so be [if this happens] being clothed, we shall not be
found naked [unclothed].
For in that we are in this tabernacle [body] do groan,
being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of
life. Now He that has wrought us for the very same
thing is God, who also has given to us the ernest [the
seal, the down-payment] of the Spirit.
Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, while
we are at home in the body, we are absent from the
Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from
the body, and to be present with the Lord."
II Cor 5.1 - 8
A WONDERFUL HOPE WE HAVE IN CHRIST JESUS WHO GAVE HIMSELF ONCE FOR ALL, THAT WE MIGHT BE WASHED CLEAN BY THE BLOOD . HE WAS OUR PASSOVER LAMB.
WINTERTIME IS THE TIME TO DREAM
WINTERTIME IS THE TIME TO DREAM ABOUT PLANTING.
IN THE WINTER WE DREAM AND ENVISION WHAT COLORS WE WANT TO SEE IN OUR YARD AND GARDEN.
With this photo of my purple Michaelmas Asters I share with you how these flowers were always the last to flower before the frost hit in the fall. Their beauty and fragrance drew bees until the very last day of flowering.
Begin by ordering catalogs.
Go on line and discover some of your favorite sites for finding plants.
Learn to use your own head in planting. Remember the zone you are in as to Climate and amount of Sun and Rain. Remember to figure in how much drainage you will need. Learn to understand the space needed for each plant to have room to grow.
And the color spectrum is important. From a distance, if you have too many colors in one spot, it will look brownish. However with lots of GREEN splash blue and white and a little bit of red and from a distance it will be magnificent. PLAN YOUR COLORS.
Also, you can envision and know when your plants will be in bloom. Staggering the planting times can help bring blooms in every part of the good weather.
Enjoy your catalogues. Enjoy the websites. Here are a few good links to search out:
Jackson's Roses
Schreiner's Iris Catalog
I recommend this as a good way to beat the winter blues.
Even if you do not have a garden, imagine WHAT IF you had one and your spirits will lift in the dreariest day of Winter.
SOME WEBSITES TO GO FOR SEEDS AND PLANTS INFO
CINDY'S LIST OF GARDEN CATALOGS
SCHREINER'S IRIS
PARK SEED
JACKSON & PERKINS
MICHIGAN BULB
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
WINTER IS JUST ABOUT HERE FOR MOST
Winter is upon us, and we have God's Spirit to show us how to light our days with joy and grace as we fulfill our daily tasks and do His will. Taking time to pray for someone. Sewing, mending, reading and studying, perhaps listening to music that edifies. Do not let sadness become your way of life. Sadness belongs to the one who has no hope. We have Hope. Christ our Lord did everything for us on that Cross - and then presented Himself to the Father as our Kinsman-Redeemer - He has defeated Satan and the enemy knows it. Our enemy Satan will do everything to make us doubt in the winters of our lives, in the time when it seems no sunshine is shining. God is with you. He will hear you. Call to Him, and He will answer. Jeremiah 33.3 "Call unto me and I will answer you with things you do not know."
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Mint, flowering
Fragrant and Blooming
