Fresh fellowship

7:05 p.m. Today's project was to meet with the director of our church's children's ministry, in order to organize childcare for a new quarterly event for moms.

Ivett and I know each other, but had never had a time to sit and really get acquainted. Reason being that I am involved primarily in women's Bible studies and events. With the exception of Vacation Bible School (here and in Wales) and puppet story time at Moms' Mornings, I haven't been called to teach youngsters. My daughter Heidi teaches 5 & 6th grades, and also knows Ivett and her husband, Pastor Sammy, from the Young Adults' group.

Have you ever felt very comfortable with a person from the start of the conversation? With other believers, all it takes is the mutual acknowledgement that without Christ we are nothing, to establish all the common ground necessary. "...you are all one in Christ Jesus," Galatians 3:28 says. I offered a prayer for guidance at the start of the meeting, and our discussion was fruitful. Ivett's counsel was invaluable for the details of asking the right women to watch the children ages 0-6th grade, getting new childcare workers fingerprinted, deciding if or when to ask for help through the church bulletin, and choosing curriculum for the various age groups.

As a couple of moms, we had fun discussing our kids, both the ups and downs, and our mutual reactions to strong odors like paint, burning candles, and for me, gasoline. When I told Ivett that attendants used to pump gas for ladies, she was amazed. Talk about the proverbial generation gap, she is two years younger than my oldest son!

When I left for a little shopping at Kohls nearby, I felt that the Lord has His hand on our plans for the children of Calvary Chapel. I also was pleased to know a sister in the Lord much better!

My positive day continued back at home, as Steve got the dogs bathed and I headed out to the garden, feeling so excited after all of the days of rain! I needed to plant my nine broccoli seedlings and a row of spinach seeds. But when I went outside to the plot, I realized that some real sprucing up was necessary. I hoed out the irrigation rows flattened out by the rain. Lots of grass blades had come up--lovely in the nearby yard, but a weed in my garden, so I tossed the grass clumps over the chain link fence. Bailey and Jada chased after the flying clumps at first, but soon grew bored. After all, grass is only edible to a dog when they need to upchuck!

A random thought occurred to me as I weeded: the wisdom of our God who sees to it that the ground is covered with greenery, whether it's greenery I deplore wholeheartedly or greenery I nurture zealously! Not one bit of soil was misplaced in the planted rows despite a full 7 days of rain because the plants' roots held the soil in place. On the other hand, the gravelly hard-packed soil path we walk had been flooded.

In Genesis 1:29, God says to man, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be be for food." Food to sustain life is available from our heavenly Father, but we humans have the honor and privilege of working alongside the Lord, following His plan for sun, rain, seasons and crops, too! As most of the earth's inhabitants do, Adam had a job, Genesis 2:15 reveals. "Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden to tend [cultivate] and to keep it."

God could cause food crops to grow in neat, orderly, well-spaced rows without any inedible plants in sight. But that was not His wise plan--we people need to work, whatever our work is. And God had placed man in a very pleasant setting, the Garden of Eden, with every plant needed for life. But man sinned--and thus the curse fell on him and all of his descendants: "Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you..." (Genesis 3:17-18)

Won't we be delighted that one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth with no death, sorrow, crying or pain (Revelation 21:1, 4) "Behold, I make all things new," the Lord says in verse 5.

I'm ready!