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| Sunflowers that planted themselves under the bird feeders |
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
"There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.' Abraham replied, 'My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, 'Then I beg you, father, send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.' But Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.' He said, 'Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' Then Abraham said, 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'" (Luke 16:19-31)
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| Sugar maple in my backyard |
Some years ago, a small group of friends and I gathered for prayer and to study the scriptures. We got to talking about the good things that God is doing throughout the world. "I want to be a part of what God is doing in the world today," someone said; "I want to do something big for God." This is what everyone wants--to do something great, something that makes a difference. But, God has called us to lighten the load and brighten the days of the people in our own house, those we work with, the people we meet as we go about our business each day, our neighbors, and we can't even do that. We resist doing the work God has put before us. We don't want to feed these people; we want to feed the starving children in Africa!
I love this parable, because of the way it illustrates human nature. We live our lives thinking: "If only I had (fill in the blank) then I could do great things for God." But, God has already given us everything we need to love and serve Him. And, there is Lazarus lying on our doorstep.
Yes.
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DeleteYes.
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DeleteGreat thoughts, Susan.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brandy. : )
DeleteBeautiful take on the parable that's so often used to divide people into us vs. them.
ReplyDeleteYour sugar maple is heavenly. And you have sunflowers that plant themselves? Lucky girl. All we ever get under our birdfeeders are corn stalks.
Two people can look at the same thing and see something very different. Everything is a matter of perspective. The older I get, the more I appreciate that life is mostly about how you see. That sugar maple in my yard, for example, is just a big weed tree growing along our fence line. Behind it is an 80 ft. high office building. It's there, but it's not important to me. The maple, however, is. I angled my camera so that you would see what I see--my perspective; my joy in the tree.
DeleteI feed the birds black oil sunflower seeds, which I get for cheap at a farm supply store. They plant themselves like crazy; we just need to be careful not to mow down the seedlings when we cut the grass.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment, Barb. ♥