On Sunday afternoon our family went to look for and buy some plants for our back yard.  Not long after we got to the nursery section both of our girls started exclaiming how beautiful most if not all the plants were.
Pretty much every single plan that had a bloom was beautiful and they could not believe how many kinds of plants there were.  “Oh, look at that yellow one.  Ooh and the pink one right next to it.”  Then there were the orange flowers, the purples flowers, the blue ones and on and on they went with all the different colors.
I did try to settle them down a bit because we wanted to be mindful of the other people shopping for plants that day, but at the same time I could not help but get caught up in their excitement for all these beautiful plants.  They were excited for cactus and even the bougainvillea that we already have in our back yard.
Not only did I get caught up in their excitement, while trying to manage our budget on flowers, I also began to think about scripture and how it talks about nature.  We see in 1 Chronicles 16:33-34: 33 Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. 34 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.
Then we see in Psalm 96:11-13: 11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; 12 let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy 13 before the Lord; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.
Lastly, another psalm has nature praising God in Psalm 148:7-10: 7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, 8 fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! 9 Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! 10 Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds!
It is no wonder that so many people talk about experiencing the presence of God in nature.  When you see the flowers bloom in such varied and glorious colors you can’t help but be awed at the work that God did to create this beautiful world for our sake.  It is also wonderful to think about how just as we come together to worship in the different ways and places that we do, we also see that nature is doing the same thing to the God who made us all.
By the way, we bought both a Spanish and French Lavender for our yard, something we’ve wanted to put in since we got here.  We also had two impulse buys:
1.     We bought a citronella plant to hopefully act as ‘garlic’ to ward off the vampiric mosquitos that like to frequent our back yard and eat our family alive.
2.     We bought a variety of Calla Lily that has coral flowers on it.  Coral is a favorite color of all the women in the family; so are lily plants.  It was hard to pass up.
Once we find the right spots for everything, we’ll get them all planted and watch them (hopefully) grow and thrive, then we too can look at our yard and think about how the Bible tells us how even the very earth itself sings for joy of God’s goodness.
Easter Blessings,
Pastor Brian