Part I The story begins

Once upon a time a little girl wanted a fish bowl. The one with a real fish in it. The kind that swims round and round and jumps up to the top when you feed it. And then one day she read all the books on her reading  list for the month and her parents rewarded her with exactly what she had wanted.   Now each day just after she sat down at the counter on her high stool, she could feed her fish and watch it eat the flakey morsels while she ate her cereal for breakfast. She was so happy!

Fast forward about forty years and imagine that little girl somewhere deep inside of me. One month I read a book (never mind that it was a talking book and someone else read it to me) and in that book  I heard about an amazing concept.  Someone had developed a geodesic garden dome that grew vegetables year round. A few years back the talking book Library had loaned me a book in which was mentioned the green houses of Minnesota. They grew edibles for ten months of the year.   Their shape was traditional hoop style. It had not even peaked my interest like the dome shaped one has done. 

Looking 

One afternoon in August when the silence between my husband and I had stretched to nearly two hours (whether from lack of something to do or boredom I don’t remember) I decided to look up the to dome greenhouse. Looking with the use of my modern device I soon discovered there was quite a lot of information on the internet   and many different kits. Then I saw it! One video just pulled at my heartstrings in a way that I had not expected. Weld up with the emotion that could not be  contained I showed the video to my husband. The desire for this  greenhouse, I told him, was so strong that it made my heart hurt. As usual for a male my tears moved him to begin looking at them also. That very evening in August we began to study the green houses. Finally one day my bravery won and I called one of the companies that provided kits. Disappointment soon reigned as I understood that the price of their kit would cost us the price of a new vehicle. That’s when Gavin started studying websites with geodesic calculators and the decision was made to build it ourselves. 

Unto Jesus

We spend a lot of time looking at things these days. Statistics are overwhelming as to the amount of screen time different age groups accomplish. How purposeful that looking is has been under scrutiny for some time now. Entertainment has become a wasteland activity. 

Longing for purpose loses its pull in the magnetic field of this visual handheld world. What is at hand or rather in hand has been known to distraction that can even be deadly. How with all the flashing lights of this world can we find Jesus?  Looking unto Jesus must become as important as tending to the physical needs of our bodies. 

James chapter two mentions the lust of the eyes as being of this world and not of the Father. Maybe I am drawn to verses that mention the eyes because of my hereditary blindness. And maybe I think about wasting what eyesight I have left more than others do. But really we all have numbered days. I just happen to know that my sighted days are numbered less than the rest of my days. Or I could say that my family history tells me that my last days will most likely be lived with blindness. 

With a more purposeful view of what I should do and what I want to do with these eyes I often think of the saying “Lord don’t let me waste my _____.” For me the blank is filled in with eyesight. 

The author and finisher

I love watching things grow. I loved watching my daughters grow up. We planted gardens together. Many times the garden “failed.”  Sometimes it was weather related and other times it was lack of cultivation. It wasn’t until my life was freed up from summer teacher studies that I could really concentrate on growing flowers and veggies with more delight. 

Looking into all the available information that we could find about the Tierra greenhouses has kept us quite occupied the last few months.  It has been a lot like going back to school which at our age is a  a rather enjoyable learning curve. 

And now it is drawing near to begin building. The connectors are here. The wood is here. The dirt work is done. The water line is in. The pond/recycled tractor tires are in place. The wood is cut and being finished with linseed oil. The building plans are printed.  

We begin a lot of tasks in our lives. The capacity to finish these tasks comes from a different source. Where does the might or force come from?

This is where moments or adventures in life turn out to be a lot like gardening. God plants a desire or longing in our hearts. A seed of sorts. We check the properties of the passion against God’s word to see if it is God’s direction or our sinful lust for pleasure. Then the watering and cultivation begins. But it is always God who gives the growth. We can’t make a seed grow on our own. We look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. 

Of our faith

Faith. We have faith in the sown seed. Belief. We believe the tomato seed will produce fruit for our sauces and salsa.  Everyone believes something. Even the atheist. Though his belief is that there is no God. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of what is unseen. Like belief in the apple seed to house an apple tree, faith leads us to believe that “In the beginning God…”. Believing in God’s existence and His creative Authorship of all that exists leads us to know without a shadow of doubt that what He begins, He finishes!

… to be continued…

This writing is based on Hebrews 12:2  “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
King James Version (KJV) Public Domain. It will be continued at a later date looking at the second half of this verse.