Ahh, sweet September; 'tis upon us
Sitting along the river in Stillwater this past Sunday, a friend and I began talking about the glory of God and (either unnoticed or uncharted) nature going unseen by man and how glory is brought (and will be brought) to Him by such unobserved works of His hand. Our conversation turned more specifically to leaves.
Consider one leaf: the stem; the shape, each specific to its kind; each tiny vein; the exacting detail devoted to a single leaf; and in certain climes with the rotation of seasons, the change of color; and new leaves then budding, being brought forth into existence with the same exacting detail. Now consider one tree, replete with thousands of these leaves. Consider a forest.
Our thoughts ensued subsequently toward how God creates, so consistently, each leaf in the spring, sustains them, and (here in Minnesota) turns them into a glorious burst of color in the fall. And there are leaves all over the world consistently being made with exacting detail -- that no eye has seen, and yet they are still being created each spring. What a testament to the faithfulness of God! How I wish to be amazed out of my complacency and boredom with faithfulness. May I see each leaf as a marvelous tribute to God's character of faithfulness and so ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.
Now, allow me to close with a quote most apropos to my first blog post of September, and that which is quite in concurrence with my own thoughts toward the season in which we find ourselves.
Delicious autumn!
My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
-George Eliot
Consider one leaf: the stem; the shape, each specific to its kind; each tiny vein; the exacting detail devoted to a single leaf; and in certain climes with the rotation of seasons, the change of color; and new leaves then budding, being brought forth into existence with the same exacting detail. Now consider one tree, replete with thousands of these leaves. Consider a forest.
Our thoughts ensued subsequently toward how God creates, so consistently, each leaf in the spring, sustains them, and (here in Minnesota) turns them into a glorious burst of color in the fall. And there are leaves all over the world consistently being made with exacting detail -- that no eye has seen, and yet they are still being created each spring. What a testament to the faithfulness of God! How I wish to be amazed out of my complacency and boredom with faithfulness. May I see each leaf as a marvelous tribute to God's character of faithfulness and so ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.
Now, allow me to close with a quote most apropos to my first blog post of September, and that which is quite in concurrence with my own thoughts toward the season in which we find ourselves.
Delicious autumn!
My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
-George Eliot
posted by Jennifer at 1:40 PM
8 Comments:
Nice use of "ensued" by the way. It did not go unnoticed.
I had to go digging through my archives for this old post that came to mind and I think fits the subject matter: http://micah.typepad.com/dogears_wrinkles/2005/03/revealed.html
Oh, and here's a little autumn poem for you from John Facenda:
"The Autumn wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
Swaggering boisterously
His face is weather beaten
He wears a hooded sash
With his silver hat about his head
And a bristling black moustache
He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold
The Autumn wind is a raider
Pillaging just for fun
He'll knock you 'round and upside down
And laugh when he's conquered and won"
Wow! I love you already! :) You're blog is so neat, and as a born and raised Minnesotan, I can say that guess what...I LOVE SWEDEN too! :) (I grew up in Swede Grove township...population 500...probably 95% Swedes). It is such a pleasure to know you through this system, and I am hoping to see you when I come to my sweet home in Minnesota, to see my favorite pastor! :)
Micah - that was perfect; thank you so much for attaching that post! That was an udderly wonderful read.
And I love the autumn poem - yesterday when I read it, I felt the need to go wrangle up a little kid...or a co-worker and read it out loud to them; it just begs to be read out loud, doesn't it?
Kelsey - I'm delighted you came by!! I know; I was looking through your blog, and the feeling is certainly mutual. :) I am simply ecstatic that you love Sweden, good times. Well, I'm very excited to meet you, come DG conf. when we're both watching our favorite pastor. (We seem to have a lot in common! Ha-ha.) I don't know if you've already emailed Frank or not about connecting up, but my email address is in my profile...so you can shoot me an email if ya want. Ciao.
Great post :) Had a similar situation like this when some friends and myself hiked up to some pools in the mountains to do some cliff jumping.
Anyway, so I was browsing the blogosphere and I saw this and I go, "dude (speaking to myself) this is so a Jen post":
In Defense of Big Words: A Sesquipedalian Manifesto... [excerpt]...
"Now the job did get done but with a good deal of exertion that the right tools would have eliminated. Words are much the same way: having the right ones on hand can get the job done much more quickly and efficiently. Christianity deals in ideas that overturn the world. It would be an advantage to us to be able to explain them adequately. Whether you attended seminary or not, whether you are in the ministry or not, you should work to build your vocabulary (and, as a closely-related corollary, your conversancy in concepts and ideas). As a matter of fact, vocabulary building should be an ancillary ministry of the pulpit and the Sunday school classroom."
Oh! That was lovely, Frank!
I perfectly agree with the efficiency and effectiveness in making your point with the proper vocabulary. However, I will have to go read the entire post. If the writer is referring to an utmost dire need for a well-rounded "Biblical" vocabulary, I always get a little "arms-distance" to that notion. The ability to twist Biblical 'language' is astounding and is exactly what happened -- Athanasius vs. Arius.
But if that is not what was being referred to, then I will simply revel in the thought of being, myself, rather inclined towards sesquipedalianism.
Lovely.
It was great talking with you-
have fun at the conference! you're in my thoughts!
:)
"If the writer is referring to an utmost dire need for a well-rounded 'Biblical' vocabulary, I always get a little 'arms-distance' to that notion."
Yea... I would get at arms-distance if he thought it would bring more to Christ (as if it's about doing something with a "greater" sense of method). However, I'm not sure that's what he's refering to. I think he's just trying to say that there are words we don't even use that we should in order to clearly communicate what we mean. But then I could be wrong and missread the whole thing.
Very nice. It is still a little warm down here (Ms) but I'm looking forward to cooler weather.
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