Even Nature Knows

For years we have traveled to Garden City, SC, to the condo of a dear friend, to enjoy our favorite vacation spot during Spring Break. We spend the week swimming in the ocean, collecting shells, sunbathing, building sandcastles, watching the dolphins leap by, feeding seagulls, avoiding jellyfish, delighting in sun and moonrises, catching anoles, starfish and coquinos, flying kites, playing football, frisbee or bocci or just praying, walking and breathing in the Good Lord at the ocean shore. We love to be there.

Typically when we go it falls on Holy Week. With Easter coming the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox, we always get to see the full moon rise red out of the ocean then hover over a calm sea ... once with a halo and moonlight reflection in the ocean that looked like the cross of Christ.

But with all the fun we're having at the beach, often times we forget it's Holy Week. Never Easter, of course, but Maundy Thursday to celebrate the Last Supper and Good Friday often would succumb to sunny days at the beach, seafood buffets and late night dips in the hot tub.

Until one year we got a nice reminder from nature about the significance of the holiday. In 1999, we visited Garden City with Brad's parents and brother's family. We were having a great time together and the weather was so cooperative giving us warm temperatures and lots of sunshine. This particular Good Friday we were out on the beach as usual when suddenly a fog rolled in ... nothing like we'd ever seen before. It came out of nowhere thickly settling over the beach. It was so dense, we couldn't see the water anymore from our beach chairs. Brad and Anton were trying to play football and were having trouble seeing each other to catch. Looking at the time we noticed something interesting ... it was noon. We headed up to the condo to wait out the fog. And promptly at 3 p.m, it lifted. But the rest of the day remained gloomy. When we realized the fog was from noon-3 p.m, we realized the significance.

Luke 23:44-46 says: "It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon while the sun's light failed and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus crying with a loud voice said, "Father into your hands I commend my spirit." Having said this He breathed His last."

Good Friday was very different for us that day. We all took notice of what nature was trying to remind us: an innocent man suffered and died on a cross nearly 2,000 years before for our salvation. God came down from His throne in Heaven to die for us. That is some profound kind of love. It was overwhelming and deep for us all. And we have never forgot it.

Likewise, we have not forgotten our sunrise service on the beach one Easter morning a few years ago. As the seagulls began to cry with the dawn, the sun just peaking over the horizon, we burst into singing my favorite hymn, "Jesus Christ is Risen Today." The church we worshiped with that morning had a large wooden cross standing in the sand and the sun rose behind it. I took a picture of that moment and it's on this blog page all the time. It was a beautiful, breathtaking moment in time.

I am grateful to God for these reminders in nature of the importance of the events that week. A horrifying death ... and triumphant, glorious life!

Seeing Stars

The first time I saw one, I thought they were so cool looking. The first time I stepped on one barefoot, I screeched in pain. The first time I stepped on one in my shoe and rolled my ankle I thought, "What good, exactly, is this thing?"

I'm talking about the sweet gum seed pods. They are spikey, round, hard pods about an inch or so in diameter that carry the seeds of the sweet gum tree. The Good Lord created them with this hard spikey outer shell to protect the more tender sweet gum seeds within.

The sweet gum tree is a beautiful hardwood native to the Southeast with leaves shaped like stars that turn purple, gold and red in the fall. Interestingly, its seed pods are star-like as well. Spray-painted gold and covered with glitter, they could make great Christmas ornaments, but step on one just once and you'll curse the tree they came from.

When I'm out for a walk and find them in my path, I kick them away to prevent others from accidently stepping on them. I've heard of people putting the seed pods in places they don't want dogs or cats to go to keep them away. Others plant them around garden seedlings underground to keep away slugs.

These sweet gum pods remind me of a few people I know. Not in appearance, mind you, but in personality when it comes to hearing about Jesus Christ. Hard, spiky folks rejecting the gift of grace. I've talked to a few of them about Christ only to get turned away, sometimes with nasty comments questioning my intelligence in an invisible God. I press on in faith - hopefully with gentleness and reverence as 1 Peter 3:16 says and not the passionate directness I more likely employ - in efforts to open their hearts to the mercy of the Almighty and salvation. I know the seeds are there within them, so I pray for them regularly, hoping the Lord finds another to water, soften and get them to grow in Him.

Every single person on this Earth is God's child. We, as Christians, need to find ways of loving them, praying for them and gently sharing the love of Christ with them. We also need to be prepared and educated enough to answer their questions as 1 Peter says a verse prior to the one above. It's what we're required to do, according to Matthew 28:19-20.

I know I'll encounter more and more sweet gum seed pods as they drop in my back woods, in the yard, on sidewalks ... and spiritually in my life. I'll be prepared for the latter with the Word in hopes they hear it, embrace Jesus and grow into strong Christian soldiers who will "shine like stars in the world" [Phil 2:14] ... without the spray paint and glitter.