300th

4:59 p.m. Today's project was to can my green chile and tomatillo salsa, as well as some ripe Roma tomatoes, all from the garden, except for the garlic clove and the onions, which are out of season now. I prepared the salsa fresh yesterday, and the tomatoes had been ripening on my kitchen counter for a few days. (The lids look a little un-shiny because they've been in boiling water in the pressure canner. Suppose I could shine them up now that they're sealed!

It never ceases to amaze me how the plants in my garden grow! In the same way, I marvel at the number, growth and maturity of the believers I know from around the country and overseas! When I hear the testimonies of Christians, the ministries they've started, the loved ones they have prayed into the kingdom of God, and the way they are raising their families in the Lord, I am amazed! Just think: a couple from one generation of believers produces "godly offspring" (Malachi 2:15), who meet and marry other believers, and the legacy of faith in Christ continues. As the Apostle Paul spoke of his and Apollos' evanglistic ministries in I Corinthians 3: 6-9a [exhorting the believers not to form "followings" behind either one of them] he describes how the church grows, using an image of plants that I can relate to:

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field...

Steve and I prepare the soil, plant, water, weed, hoe the irrigation ditches, stake tomatoes, keep out gophers, spray for worms and other pests, but who brings the bees to pollinate the blossoms on our vegetable plants? Only God can do that!! Steve and my dad may have erected a chainlink fence, but only God can keep a swarm of locusts from devouring every plant down to the roots!

In this 300th post, published on our 29th wedding anniversary weekend, I naturally am reflecting on the "produce " of our marriage: 5 adult children, 3 in-laws and their families, 2 more in-laws and their families to be added in 2011, and two grandchildren so far! We led our children to the Lord and nurtured them meticulously for all their tender young years, but only God could have opened their hearts to Him and the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ! They are adults now, and the same principle holds: only God can keep them, nurture them, grow them in His Word and fit them for ministries of their own! And if need be, only God can bring them back into His perfect will should they stray! (Same as for their parents and all other believers!)

Steve and I have had a lovely day of yard work, gardening, and relaxation, and we'll now go "out to dinner" at Del Taco, with a coupon, as befits our current budget.

I couldn't be more pleased!!