God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. – Genesis 1:31

A couple of days ago Rebekah and I sat on the deck drinking coffee. We looked at the garden, looked at each other, smiled and decided it was finally time to wade in and get to work.

The day could not have been any more conducive. Sunny, clear, temperatures hovering between 45 and 50-degrees.

We started by clearing out the excess pine-straw, pine-cones, and indeterminate detritus. Then it was weeding. Then transplanting. After that Rebekah moved the weeding operation over to my parents’ front garden and I started bagging. Ten of those HUGE yard-trash bags stuffed to the gills. Finally, it was more raking followed by creating a major dust storm with the blower.

Rebekah and I only worked on the front garden of both homes. We didn’t even get to the sides of the house or behind the fence at the back. But my Fitbit recorded well over 20,000 steps and we finished the day tired, sore and quite likely damaged – but we were also deeply satisfied.

There’s not much going on in the way of flowering yet, but one of the red azalea bushes escaped the marauding bud-munching gang of deer, the white ones are just about ready to pop, a couple of the dogwoods are fixing to bust wide open, some of the daffodils are still full, and there’s a purple iris near the front stoop that’s just singing its heart out with joy.

Again, I am witnessing the coming together of God’s amazing creation and our fumbling attempts to be good stewards of our small corner of Tyler Run. God gives us all the raw materials we need, but the Creator is not about to let us off the hook when it comes to taking care of our responsibilities as people who have charge of this plot.

“Behold,” God is saying to me (the Lord uses words like behold because they have more dignity and gravitas), “when I imagined you, created you and gave you place and purpose on this good Earth (same thing), I visioned innumerable possibilities and my consideration of your contributions to love and good works gave me joy!”

Well, I must admit that life is very full. But whatever I am up to, be it writing, teaching, loving my grandchildren, attending worship, or raking out indeterminate detritus, I pray every day that everything lines up with the Creator’s purposes, blesses this world, and gives God joy.

Peace, and more – DEREK