Scripture & a Snapshot A Cheerful Heart

Springtime in Oceana County is usually a beautiful site.  This year, spring started early, with wonderfully warm temperatures in March.  I was torn between giving the girls a few days off of school work, or trying to hurry through the rest of the year's schoolwork and just be done with it.  We went for bike rides and took walks along the wonderful shores of Lake Michigan.  During this unseasonably warm spring, though, worry edged the back of our minds.  Late frosts could come as late as mid-May.  How could we go the next 8 weeks without freezing temperatures to damage the fruit trees?

My phone tells me the weather forecast, and whenever there is a weather threat, it never fails to chatter out a wild jungle sound to alert me of it.  So many nights now, my phone would send out the jungle warning at 3:30 am of a frost advisory.  And I knew our friends were out fighting the frost the only way they could:  start the fans blowing on the orchards.  And I fought the only way I could:  prayer to the Creator and Sustainer of life.

As it looks right now, there will be a very poor cherry & apple & peach season, along with others, I'm sure.  Living is a small farming community, we'll all feel the effects.  Those who aren't farmers work in the packaging plants and count of overtime during cherry season. Most others work in small family owned businesses that farmers buy and trade with.  My own family, my husband and father-in-law, do a lot of the farmers' mechanical work on their trucks and tractors and machinery.

Jesus is the One who sends the rain and the sunshine, along with the frost and the cold.  We give him thanks during the bounty, and we must choose to give him thanks during the lack. Blessed be His name! Bring on whatever it takes to bring Him glory.

I am not a farmer.  I'm not married to a farmer.  I don't have farmers in my family.  But I like to eat the fruits of their labor.  My friends and neighbors are farmers.  My brothers and sisters in Christ are farmers.  Can we all choose to trust the Lord of the Harvest together?

 My bluebells and violets are up and looking pretty!

I even planted some peas along the edges of our TeePee and some spinach in the inside of it.

 Here's our teepee in the garden from last year.  I hope to get the peas and beans to grow up it better this year.  Last year, I planted the seeds long before the teepee was in place.