Shade Tree Wisdom 10/4/11

          What a relief and change, cool enough for a light jacket.  The air was so nice, cool, fresh that I prolonged my walk a bit.  I also found that the neighbor’s children have to walk three tenths of a mile to catch their bus.  Well, the time calls for some sacrifice.  After all, I walked half a mile through hip deep snow drifts some days to get to school, and I can say that because there is no one around to gainsay me.

     “This is the day that the Lord has made,
     Let us rejoice, and be glad in it”.

          With that Psalm many Lutherans begin their worship hour.  It reminds right away where we are and for what purpose, to rejoice and be glad in worship because we long to hear the Word.  And that is so often forgotten in this day of change.

          But then, you heard the joke about the man with the written list who remembered the meeting, while the man with the special device forgot.  So change is not always all it was meant to be.

          I was reminded of this when I read about the curator for the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden in the NY Botanical Garden.  He came on board five years ago and said, “I inherited a rose garden that had been doused with weekly sprays for 20 years”.  He had come to oversee a renovation, and just then NY City banned the use of harmful chemicals in public places.  And without their chemical cocktails, many roses could not perform.  So he replaced, and began using compost, leaf mold, fish emulsion, and other organic matter to restore the depleted soil to health.  He reported with joy that earthworms have returned to the garden soil. And roses bloom best when they grow in healthy soil, and that is what nature supplies, and nature’s best tool is the earthworm, that busy underground gardener who turns and mixes and aerates and deposits rich castings to enrich the soil.  Result, healthy soil.

          We are living in an age of rapid change.  Change is inevitable, some for the good, other changes, not.
But we live in it, so it is wonderful that our God has given us a sure guide.

     “Change and decay in all around I see,
     But Thou who changest not, abide with me.”

          When we remember that, we can and do live securely, knowing Whose we are, and what God has promised us.  And we are thankful.

GPD 10/4/11