Pinecones

 

The Lord has created and set into motion an awesome creation.  I was reminded of this Saturday as I raked up the pine needles all over my driveway.  Mixed in the needles were pinecones, most of which were open having dispersed their seeds.  But a few were still closed and had been blown off the tree by high winds and heavy rain the night before.  And then there were some pinecones that had been chewed open by squirrels, and their seeds had been breakfast for those little creatures.  The squirrels like to eat sunflower seeds under my bird feeders because they are easier work.  But when I am slow to refill the birdfeeders, the squirrels are hungry and must resort to the pinecones and work for breakfast.  Thousands of pine seeds fall and a few sprout into new pine seedlings.  Then others become breakfast for the squirrels.  Then just a few pinecones become Christmas decorations for my house.  And the dear Lord provides all of them!  When Noah came off the ark in Genesis 8, he was grateful to be on dry land once again.  He built an altar to the Lord and sacrificed of the extra clean beasts and fowl that the Lord had sent into the ark over a year earlier.  And when God smelled the sweet smelling sacrifice burning, He remembered mankind, the animals on the ark, and the vegetation that had just sprang back to life on the dry land.  And the squirrels were glad for the pinecones that provided seeds for them.  God said in Gen 8:22, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”  I’m so glad for God’s provision for us, and for the animals, and for the trees!  And I am extremely grateful for God’s provision of a way for me to live forever with Him in heaven.  What a wonderful plan for all eternity!

Stuff It In

 

Saturday, I raked my driveway; not my yard.  My driveway is steep going up to the back door, and it was covered with so many pine needles that the car was sliding around.  Not good.  So, I raked and bagged the pine needles.  I got a huge pile but was able to squash all of those pine needles into 3 tall kitchen garbage bags.  I pushed and pushed, and it seemed like I could always get just one more handful of pine needles into the full bag.  Those pine needles remind me of the hard times in my life.  Sorrow seems to grow out of control.  Grief often overwhelms me.  But God is faithful and powerful!  The dear Lord can take those sorrows and bury them in the depths of the deepest sea!  Hey, there is coming a day when God will resolve all of my problems!  Revelation 21:14, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."  What a day that will be!

Deceived

 

When I was a kid, we went to see the Baltimore Orioles play about once a year.  That was about all that my dad could afford.  But we watched the orioles on TV most weekends.  I had a little transistor radio with a single wired earbud that I used for the west coast games.  I had to go to bed at eight o’clock, but my dad would let me listen to the baseball games as long as I was in bed.  In the early sixties, Baltimore had a relief pitcher named Hoyt Wilhelm.  He didn’t pitch very fast, and he wasn’t very clever, but he had a knuckle ball that was incredible.  Paul Richards, the manager of the orioles, would use Wilhelm in later innings as a relief pitcher.  “Old Sarge” as he was known as, would come into a game, and if the orioles had the lead, he was unstoppable.  The catcher, Gus Triandos, had a special catcher’s mitt with a 41” circumference to corral the knuckle ball.  When Old Sarge pitched his knuckle ball, batters just couldn’t tell where the ball would go.  But neither could Wilhelm or Triandos.  The knuckle ball was slow, but so deceptive that batters would swing at what they thought was an easy pitch only to find that they had struck out.  Hey, that’s how Satan deceives us.  He comes at us with his sucker pitch, and we fall for his trick every time.  Satan’s temptations are so slick and so enticing that we are fooled into ignoring God’s warnings.  Paul said in Galatians 6:7, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”  Just like batters thought Old Sarge’s slow-moving knuckle ball was an easy hit, we fall for Satan’s lies.  But don’t be deceived.  Satan will lie every time.  Trust God.  He will never let you down.