The Next Car on the Last Blog Train...

Would God leave me wondering in the anguish of my last blog without bringing forward the beginnings of His answer?
Apparently not-- although that answer does not follow the same fashion currently popular: the terse text message. His "ways" produce an answer that is a blend of the natural and the fantastic, the practcial and the poetically scriptural.

When we returned home from camping, I found one of my squash plants utterly wilted. I began immediately to research the problem. There were some signs that bugs were beginning to infest the plant, but the primary diagnosis was mildew. The plants had grown so prolifically (and I had failed to prune them, I must remember that lesson) that air did not circulate well under those broad leaves and the rains that finally came turned the plant's ground level to mildew. So I followed the advice of my plant-doctor text: spray it with a mix of baking soda (essentially salt: the purifier) and water and watch to see what happens. After pulling out the worst of the wilted and mildewed stalks, I waited to see if blooms would reappear. This morning, it looks as though they might.

That's the natural event that melted into a gardening vision I had last night. In that almost-dream state, right before sleep when I do my last prayers of the day, I "saw" something that looked like a grasshopper, only it had a green human head with a tiny crown on it. It was feeding on what my heart told me was my "inheritance" from God. As I looked at it, it looked up from feeding on the shambles of my crop like it felt a change in the wind. That prompted a more figurative direction to my prayer. The last thing I prayed before sleeping was to turn to that part of God's nature that causes Him to be described as Wind. I asked that He blow these heartless feeders to another "field." Still, I slept fitfully, as I can hardly avoid the stresses of knowing my "field" will not sustain me with what's left in it. Something supernatural must indeed happen or we will "lose the field."

This morning, when I got up and got my coffee, I peeked out the window and saw--there in the early morning light--the first few brave yellow blossoms reappearing on the squash plant. OK, I thought. I'll give the plant another day before yanking it. I'll keep watching. Then I sat down to my morning Bible reading. This was the passage I found where my Bible fell open, followed by another passage: the Psalm that happened to be the one in my reading progression for today.

Lord, You do have a way of making Your point! Thanks for the petitioning prayers of Solomon--his legacy prayer that reached pointedly even to my own need so many generations later than when he prayed it; and thanks for the faithful and confident, hopeful and appreciative prayers of his father David. Thanks, for when I can not find the words for myself, I can borrow theirs!

28 “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, 29 and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel—each one aware of his afflictions and pains, and spreading out his hands toward this temple— 30 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of men), 31 so that they will fear you and walk in your ways all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers. 2Chronicles 6

5 O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You maintain my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Yes, I have a good inheritance.
7 I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16