Potatoes in MY peas!

A few weeks ago, prior to the flood that had us held up in the house for a week. My peas were starting to get pretty tall. I wanted to weed them really good and hoe around them once before they got so big they bloomed and I might knock the blooms or fragile new pea pods off. There are 3 nice straight rows, not to many, just a few to eat right away. My plan was to plant some more in the fall and maybe can or freeze them. As I made my way down the row I pulled up many different kinds of weeds, some i recognized, some I didn't, but I knew they weren't peas. The sun was hot that day but I enjoyed the work, listening to the goats, and tiny frogs. Smelling the wild flowers, feeling the breeze was a refreshing in the warm sun. As I made my way down the row hoeing and weeding I found a plant I recognized. It was a potato! I didn't plant a potato there.... Well, at least not this year. I did have potatoes in this spot last year. I must have miss one, and now here it was growing in MY pea patch. I started to pull it up. The gardener in me wouldn't let me, however I thought about it. I couldn't see pulling up a perfectly good plant. It wasn't really hurting anything. BUT I thought about going back and pulling it up, it didn't belong there. This was a PEA patch after all. Then God used this to remind me about many times in my life. There are so many time, when I start a project, mind you, it is always a GOOD thing. I start the project and suddenly it takes a different path or someone or something I didn't plan ends up in the middle of MY project. Those things that show up, have always been sent by God. The true thing that was supposed to be my project in the first place. Instead of God putting a potato in MY pea patch, I had put peas in God's potato patch. Why is it that we plan, then expect God to show up and make it all great!! Why are we surprised when he doesn't show up, or throws something unexpected in our plan? Now I am not suggesting that God didn't want me to plant my peas in the place. I am quite sure God did not care that my peas were there. I am not even sure he put the potato there, but I am completely convinced that he used the potato. The potato was to remind me not to make any plans or start any projects without checking with him first. My life is HIS garden anyway, I am only caretaker. I did leave the potato, as a reminder.... I hope you plant your peas in HIS pea patch. God Bless!

Holy or Lowly??

As I have grown up I had always heard that Christ was born in a barn because he wanted to come lowly. I suppose I agree with the idea, that God wanted to present his wonderful son in a humble understandable package to the average man. I can see that it is a contrast to the idea of a king, born in a golden palace surrounded by those subservient to him from birth. Wrapped in fine linen, laid in a glorious cradle, sung to sleep by his loyal subjects. Definitely a sharp contrast to his actual birth. Or is it? I would purpose that the place of his birth was not only lowly, but also HOLY. He was born in the presents of HIS creations the way he made them, simple and exactly the way he made them. I am sure their knew the presents of their creator. I am sure they stood in awe with gentle bleats and soft noise to praise his sweet little name. He was in the fresh open air of the earth he created, wrapped with love by a young mother that he knew before her own birth, and laid in the golden sweet straw of the manger. He was worshiped by the angels, made just for that business. Worshiped also by the Shepherds in tune with the nature that surrounded them and with out great education understood this event. There in that barn, it WAS a holy place!
I still find God so easily in the barn, where his creations still function the way he made them so many thousands of years ago. They still know their place in the scheme of things, and no matter what happens they plug on, doing what they were created to do. They don't fight his will for their life, a goat doesn't try to be a dog, or cat a chicken. They are most generally happy and content being the creature they were made to be..... they are exactly how God made them, living as he intended, showing us his perfect plan in there very existence. With that said I would argue that for me a barn is not a lowly place, but a HOLY place. For if all those present are projecting the perfect plan of God, in just the way God made them, how much more Holy can you get.....

Here are several online definitions of Holy: (just for reference)
ho·ly (hl)adj. ho·li·er, ho·li·est

1. Belonging to, derived from, or associated with a divine power; sacred.

2. Regarded with or worthy of worship or veneration; revered: a holy book.

3. Living according to a strict or highly moral religious or spiritual system; saintly: a holy person.

4. Specified or set apart for a religious purpose: a holy place.

5. Solemnly undertaken; sacrosanct: a holy pledge.

low·ly (ll)

adj. low·li·er, low·li·est

1. Having or suited for a low rank or position.

2. Humble or meek in manner.

3. Plain or prosaic ( Lacking in imagination and spirit; dull)in nature.