Another Harvest Wedding



The beautiful Lisa, Benjamin, and my man...




Dancing in "fields of grace"!

God created life to be lived in chapters and seasons. It is meant that we enter into the seasons of those with whom God has placed us in community. At its most common denominator, this is what life is about: serving one another in love, celebrating with those who celebrate, weeping with those who weep.

The Christian faith has no context outside relationships, because love is not a concept, it is a way of living every day with people.

The Miracle of Technology

It's a....LIMA BEAN!

Of course, we don't know if the grand baby is a boy or girl yet, but I went with Hannah to her first doctor's appointment, and I got to see the ultrasound, and hear the baby's heartbeat.

Oh. My.

What a moment. Good, strong heartbeat! They measured the little teeny baby, and estimated that Hannah is right at 6 weeks along, and the due date is (drumroll please)...

...December 18!





Hope your weekend is blessed, my friends. We've a Harvest Wedding tomorrow, and the excitement of this day has caught up with me. I'm headed to dreamland...

The Fruit of the Womb is His Reward...


This is what happens when you find out you are going to be a grandmommy: your friends send flowers and give you presents.



I know it is early...but story books are most important, you see.


I've been waiting to tell you. Bustin' to tell you.

Two of my best friends are pregnant...my daughter Hannah, which you already know....

....and Wendy Cantrell, over at Hope Springs!


Here's the jump-up-and-down, squeal till I'm breathless thing: My Wendy is...well, she's almost my age. She isn't forty...she is a late thirty-something, but she'll see forty way before I see fifty. Put it that way.
And her Doug is my Tim's age. Doug and Tim get to be new daddy and new grand-daddy together. Isn't that pre-shus??

Wendy babysat Hannah when she was a baby. Wendy and I lingered over the thought that she never dreamed...no, not in a million years, when she fed Hannah in her high chair...that she and that baby would one day be pregnant together.

Two of my best friends. My confidantes. Right arms, these girls are.

Wendy doesn't know this, but when I heard, I did the same thing she did. I laughed, and then I cried. Then I laughed. I did a whole lot more laughing. It was the sort of laughter that rolls up from a girl's innermost being.

God is saying something profound to my heart and to my church.


Relationships are worth the work it takes to preserve continuity. I cannot run after anyone determined to leave me, because there are far too many others still with me who do love and need me. The other gal would have to be the one to leave. I would not sacrifice continuity for any difference of opinion, no offense could make me leave, no personality clash is worth jeopardizing these life-long friendships. This....oh, this! is generational blessing.

If bliss could kill, I'd be dead.

Two babies - who will be born within days of each other. A grand baby, and another "adopted" niece or nephew. May they grow up dwelling in the land - pitching their permanent living quarters, cultivating the same faithful continuity of friendship with their God and their family and their friends that their parents and grand parents have cultivated.

I can testify: Verily, they shall be fed.

Renewed, Rebuilt, Restored, REDEEMED


Someone recently asked me what I meant when I said that once I admitted that the foundations of my Christian life needed rebuilt, God met me.


I am so glad you asked. Thank you!


I've had a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, since I was six years old. This relationship has been very real, touching every part of my being, spirit, mind, and body. Early on, however, I slipped into performing my way into God's favor - and was unfortunately good at it. My own strength and effort carried me for too many years.


Occasional fasting, daily prayer, Bible reading, Bible teaching, raising children, home educating them, exercise, careful diet, hours of study across wide disciplines, being a loving, supportive wife, keeping a clean home, and clean living, plus discipling others and impacting their lives for Christ, it all came easily to me, so long as I worked very hard. (Can you hear the contradiction yet?)


I thought I understood the grace of God, after all, I've been a Christian leader for years.


Ah, "I was brought low, and He helped me..."


All it took was a little perceived failure, a dash of mid life hormones, plus the steady influence of a few grumpy Christians living under the law, and I began to unravel, sinking into a depression that I have only described in detail to a very few people. I "should" have seen a doctor. If I ever see that dark place again, I will.

My pastor-husband began revisiting the doctrines of grace, and I followed suit. The only explanation for what happened next is that the veil fell from my face. I, with unveiled face, began to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and began to encounter grace.


Encounter.


It is precisely at the point of encounter, where my legalist friends (and I) had it all wrong. We understood grace too quickly, early in our Christian experience, and thus failed to understand well at all. No one lingered. No one was raw and needy anymore, once they were converted. Oh, we had hard times - very, very hard times - and we sacrificed and worked our way out of them, giving God the glory all the way.


The only difference today between them and I, is that I admitted my ineptitude, and meant it. I came crestfallen to the cross, admitting that the very foundations of my spiritual life needed to be rebuilt on the true, full gospel of grace. I changed my mind - which is to say, I repented of relying on my own abilities.


A walk with God has actually not as much to do with behavior modification, self-conscious self discipline, or even morality. It has more to do with the beauty of grace. Grace cannot be known in concept, it must always be encountered in a person.


I began to encounter Christ in the Pauline gospel in a fresh way. To this day, I'm blessedly ruined. Forever undone. Gloriously insufficient in myself to please God - thankfully, He is eternally pleased with Christ Alone, and I am In Christ.


My friend, it is not by works of righteousness (which I have done...oh, have I ever done them!) but according to His mercy He saved me. It is by grace I am saved, and in the same way I received Christ, I am expected to walk in Him.


My days and years of confidence in the flesh are gone. The paradoxical thing is that I am doing more, setting higher goals, attaining to more than before. Because it would be perfectly okay if I did nothing at all.


The thing that is different today, is that this vessel, now that it has been broken at the feet of Jesus, is releasing the perfume that is in it...also Jesus. For from Him and to Him and through Him are all things. My heart is tender to the breaking point, and in my weakness, He is made so strong.


My righteousness is reckoned to me. It is a gift.


Bless His name!

Manifold Grace, Abundant Grace...


Look what I bought yesterday!

I can't wait till Monday to make my special announcement...


I am going to be a grandmommy!


Yes. Me.


Hannah and Justin, married last May, are "with child" by their first wedding anniversary. They are ecstatic.


Their dad and I are over the moon. What is the deal with this release of incredible, undeserved blessing in our lives? One thing after another after another, and just when I think it can't get any better...


...I find out I am going to be a grandmommy.


When I told the church family about it this morning, I laid flat-out on the floor! No kidding. I just laid down, on my back, and then said it: "I am going to be a grandmommy!" After all, if bliss could kill, I'd be dead-on-the-floor. There was simply no other way to convey the utter joy.


Harvest Church responded like they always do, for every special, amazing church-family announcement.


They went crazy.


"Grow old along with me", dear friends, "the best is yet to be - the last of life for which the first was made..."


If you only knew the emotional state of my heart a little over a year ago, you would be astounded at what God has done. I thought I understood grace...and I did. But I had yet to apply my theology to my biography.

The moment I acknowledged my need to have the foundations of my life rebuilt, God met me and began a deep work. Then, in recent weeks and months, I have entered a season of blessing and harvest unlike any I've ever known - rich in some ways money can buy, and rich in every conceivable way money cannot buy.


Perfect love does not come until the first grandchild.
~Welsh Proverb

TGIF


Cutting the coco-mat to fit a heart-shaped wire basket that I have had for over ten years...



filling the hanging baskets with beautiful potting soil...



tease the roots of your flowers before planting them...



Plant your new annuals in an "X" or cross shape, three across, three down. They look sparse now, but this will fill in and spill over beautifully in a matter of a few weeks. This year, I chose red wave petunia and red verbena, both have a draping, hanging habit.



One of the finished baskets, in its usual spring and summer home.



some of the ingredients to home made chicken lo mein...




pasta on the left, boneless chicken in the wok, with coarse salt, soy, and believe it or not, a couple of teaspoons of brown gravy mix, and of course a bit of minced ginger...




a typical evening here...


Enjoy your weekend, friends. Mine is already shaping up to be most lovely. Absolutely got to get the pole bean seeds planted this weekend, and also need to get the usual impatiens stuffed in the pockets of my heirloom terra cotta strawberry pot. This year, I chose white rather than the usual reddish-salmon color. The contrast of the white on the terra cotta will be gorgeous. It is the little things in life that bliss me out.


Stay tuned, because I will have a special surprise announcement coming on Monday!






I Am...


...the most blessed woman I know of. That is who I am. And if you understand divine grace, you are the most blessed woman (or man) that you know of.


Got all my hanging planters filled and hung (I design and plant up my own, which saves lots of money), free Black-eyed Susan perennials planted (three good-sized plants - a fabulous gift) and got all my tomato and pepper plants, plus some cilantro in the ground today.


It has been a long, hard-working, and insanely happy day for me. I'm slightly sunburnt and tired and my back aches, but oh, His grace is amazing!


Wild horses could not drag me back under the law. I love, love, love this New Covenant Life that I have been freely given in Christ Jesus.

Sharing some blogs I love - I planted some ranunculus today. I have long loved this flower, and finally have plants of my own! I ran across this fantastic little blog...if you enjoy ranunculus like I do, you will thank me for the link!