While I know myself as a creation of God, 
I am also obligated to realize and 
remember that everyone else and 
everything else are also God's creation. 
~ Maya Angelou ~



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Keep close to Nature's heart... and break 
clear away, once in awhile, and climb 
mountain or spend a week in the woods. 
Wash your spirit clean. 
~ John Muir ~ 





God works powerfully, but for the most part 
God works gently and gradually. 
John Newton


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"Happy is the soul that has been awed 
by a view of God's Majesty."
A.W. Pink

The world is charged with the grandeur of God. 
Gerald Manley Hopkins


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............ SOWING A SEED IN SOMEONE'S HEART ............
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While driving along one of the Garden City's streets this afternoon, I saw a sign outside a Church which boldly stated “Thinking seeds.” The appointed Gospel for this coming Sunday is the Parable of the Sower as told from Matthew’s perspective. 
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That Church sign got me to thinking thoughts about “seeds” and recalling a wonderful story of how we often sow seeds and never know the outcome.
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H.L. Gee, a prolific English writer, in one of his books relates this story. In the Church where Gee worshipped there was a lonely old man, he was known as “Old Thomas”. Thomas had outlived all his friends and hardly anyone knew him. Thomas died. H.L. Gee had the feeling that there would be no one to go to the funeral so he decided to go, so that someone might follow old Thomas to his last resting place.
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There was no-one; and it was a wild, wet day. The funeral reached the cemetery; it was during the war; and at the gate there was a soldier waiting. He was an officer, but on his raincoat there were no rank badges. The soldier came to the grave-side for the ceremony; when it was over he stepped forward and standing before the open grave he swept his hand to a salute that might have been given to a king.
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H. L. Gee walked away with this soldier, and as they walked the wind blew the soldier’s raincoat open; and now H. L. Gee saw the shoulder badges of rank. The soldier was nothing less than a brigadier.
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The soldier said to H. L. Gee: ‘You will perhaps be wondering what I am doing here. Years ago Thomas was my Sunday School teacher; I was a wild lad and a sore trial to him; he never knew what he did for me; but I owe him everything I am or will be to old Thomas; and today I had to come to salute him at the end.”
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William Barclay tells this story in his commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, and it gives one an insight into the importance of sowing seeds. Old Thomas, all those years ago, had no idea that he was even sowing seeds, but then no teacher or preacher ever does. It is God, the Holy Spirit, who takes the seed and makes it grow, and the sower often has no idea of what may grow from that little seed.
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Now, on a personal level, this story speaks to my heart, for I remember my Sunday School teacher whose message was very straightforward and also very simple. He encouraged us to always remember that "God loves you." I was about 8 or 9 years old. Mr. McDowell is the reason I am a preacher today and my message is his message from those years ago” Remember God loves you.”
DO NOT WORRY
22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life[b]? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.







FLOWERS,FLOWERS & FLOWERS 



There is a quiet light 
that shines in every heart.

It draws no attention to itself, 
though it is always secretly there.

It is what illuminates 
our minds to see beauty, 
our desire to seek possibility, 
and our hearts to love life.

Without this subtle quickening 
our days would be empty and wearisome, 
and no horizon would ever awaken our longing.

Our passion for life is quietly 
sustained from somewhere in us 
welded to the energy 
and excitement of life.

This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize 
and receive our very presence here as a blessing.

We enter a world as strangers 
who all at once become heirs 
to a harvest of memory, spirit, 
and dream that has long
preceded us and will now 
enfold, nourish, and sustain us.

The gift of the world 
is our first blessing.

~ John O'Donohue ~ 


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We thank you Lord God,
for the beauty of creation,
for family and friends,
and all the blessings
of this life.
Amen.
~ THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE SEASON OF SPRING ~



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When out running, I almost always carry my little Canon camera with me.  It serves to give me the opportunity to at least try and capture a moment of beauty, for one can return a few moments or even seconds later, and the whole scene has changed completely as shadows and light do their work of creating a sight that stops me literally in my tracks.   


.As Irish poet, philosopher and Celtic theologian John O'Donohue once upon a time mused, "Beauty only visits, it never lingers."


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"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot stop spring from coming."   Pablo Neruda


As Gerald Manley Hopkins reportedly said, "The world is charged with the grandeur of God."



The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also. Harriet Ann Jacobs