Earth Day - Sunday's Music

I just heard that today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Without wanting to stir reaction from any of the extreme camps on this issue, Earth Day fits in great with this Sunday's music so I'm going to blog about it.

The beauty of the earth. Wow! You could write for days and not tell all of the beautiful things God created as part of this wonderful earth: desserts, oceans, mountains, valleys, coast lands, wet lands, red dirt, black dirt, waterfalls, lakes, streams, rivers, trees, flowers, grass, the sky, rain, clouds...

Do we need to take better care of the earth? Absolutley. One example... There's a spot in the Pacific Ocean - Great Pacific Garbage Patch - that some say is the size of Texas. Others say it is the size of the continental USA. Either way its a big mess that we should be concerned about and actually DO something about.

Do we have global warming? Hmmm, not so sure on that one. The numbers in some of the studies were cooked. Oh, that's funny. Cooked numbers about being cooked. Haha. An accidental funny.

Cherry tree at my home in Whites Creek

(The house comes with the tree. Call me. I'll make you a deal.)

Is the world a beautiful creation of God? If you don't know the answer to that one you haven't been paying attention. This Sunday - since we're right in the middle of Spring and everything is soooo gorgeous - we'll be singing All Creatures of Our God and King, God of Wonders, and For the Beauty of the Earth.

The choir will be singing The River of Life.

Here's are some verses for your consideration on this 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Genesis 1:1 NAS In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

One of my favorite verses (and chapters) about Jesus.
Colossians 1:16 NAS For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -all things have been created through Him and for Him.

Beautiful Bear Hollow

I've tried three different ways to start this post. None of them worked.

I'll let this collage of what I saw in my yard today speak for itself and then let scripture speak for itself. I think sometimes we mess all of that up when we try to do the explaining.


Here is the Apostle Paul describing our Lord Jesus Christ. You should really read the entire chapter,

(it's incredible) Read This Chapter

These verses describe His roll in creation.

Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

A Beautiful Relationship

I was out in the backyard last Monday. Spending time digging in the dirt and puttering around the yard is - as far as I am concerned - the perfect way to relax and recover from all of the time and energy that goes into putting on the Passion Play.

My little lawn tractor broke an axle last Fall. I had hoped to sell my house before I needed it again, but alas, the bad housing market is now making it where I'll have to get it fixed. (I guess I figured I could leave it as a present to the new home owners.)

All of that to say...

the early spring yard flowers (often known as weeds) are doing well this year since they haven't had to deal with my mower. So Monday afternoon I was on the back lot behind my creek and the yard there was filled with zebra butterflies flitting from flower to flower.

So why tell you about them here?

And why haven't you ever seen a field of flowers and zebra butterflies?

I'm glad you asked!

I'm telling you about it here because Zebra butterflies are a testimony to God's wonderful creativity and how His creation fits perfectly together.

You may have never seen them because there are certain conditions that have to be met for them to be around.

First off, they only live near pawpaw trees. You don't have a paw paw tree? Well, that's because they only live in the shade of other trees in "deep fertile bottomland and hilly upland habitat" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawpaw .

Well, it just so happens I've got that right here on Bear Hollow.

My backyard - notice the barn (you can see the door here) way at the back at the foot of my mountain) The pawpaws are right behind the barn.

The pawpaw has a rather unassuming flower - a small brown/green bell that hangs from the branch. I understand that they make the largest fruit in North America, but I've never seen any of my pawpaws with fruit. I don't know if the birds and squirrels get them or if they just don't make at all.

Ends up that the leaves of pawpaws are a bit toxic to bugs that like to chew on trees, but not to the zebra butterfly caterpillar. And (I read a really long article with a whole bunch of really big words that I couldn't understand - but this is what I figured out) the toxicity of the pawpaw is retained not only in the larvae but in the butterfly too! Because of this, birds don't eat them. They know they taste bad.

I think it's just really incredible that Bear Hollow is perfect for pawpaw trees, pawpaw trees are the only thing zebra butterfly larvae eat, the pawpaw protects the butterfly and my yard is full of flowers that the butterfly loves and I have a digital camera and can capture it all for you to see!

It seems to me that it would take a whole lot more "faith" to believe that the pawpaw and zebra butterfly evolved into this relationship than to believe that God was having a lot of creative fun creating this beautiful and beneficial relationship.

Transformation

There's an old children's song called "Bullfrogs and Butterflies".
Bullfrogs and butterflies, both been born again... I think it was from a musical called "Down by the Creek Bank". The point of the song was that we too can be born again.

I was able to see a part of a transformation today - right here at the back door of our office building. It was a cicada coming out of it's old skin. locust vs. cicada AND I HAD MY CAMERA!!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 Read This Chapter

But more than just a reminder that God is in the business of making things new, it also is a great testimony to God and His work in creation. It seems a bit crazy to me that someone could believe that the incredible variety of life - from bugs to birds to animals and fish and people - could all have evolved from primordial ooze.

Here's what Colossians says about Jesus and creation. These are some of my favorite verses.

Colossians 1 Read This Chapter
1:16
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.

1:17
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

Our Last Poll

One of my favorite passages about Jesus is Colossians 1:15-20 http://bible.christianity.com/mybst/?reference=Col%201:15-20&type=bible&translation=niv

The wonder of creation - especially seen in the Spring reminds me of Colossians 1:16
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.


Tiny yellow daffodils on the other side of the creek.

The vote for our favorite spring tree had a runaway winner - the queen of spring trees - the dogwood. (25 votes)


I actually voted for the cherry tree. (9 votes) They were the most beautiful they have been in several years this year. I had to vote for them. We planted a double cherry in our front yard when Gibson was born.

Gibson's tree


Then I needed to vote for the red buds. (3 votes) They are at peak bloom now. I LOVE red bud trees. I-24 is surrounded by them. Sooooo beautiful. And since the red bud is the state tree of my native Oklahoma I needed to vote for it. Since Elam was born in Oklahoma we planted a red bud tree for him on the other side of the creek.


But of course the most beautiful spring tree is the dogwood and our voters agreed. We planted a dogwood tree when Haven was born. Just as the red buds are fading away the dogwoods will come into full bloom.

Lest you think we forgot Hannah and Benjamin, Hannah has a beautiful weeping willow (because it is her momma's favorite tree) and Benjamin has a black walnut. (haha, not for the reason you are thinking of) The walnut across the creek is a big strong beautiful tree and we know Benjamin will grow to be a big strong beautiful person. (OK, maybe a little for the reason you are thinking of -grin-) It's the first tree you come to on our property.




Miniature daffodils

I guess after we move to Clarksville we'll have to plant some new trees. We won't be planting any Bradford pears (0 votes).