August 13, 2018
In this week’s Fruit of the Vine, Eve Garrison reflects on last summer when a neurological illness forced her “to lay aside all electronics, and even conversation with people, because my brain couldn’t handle the activity.” Eve’s husband created a space for her “to rest and reflect while enjoying my garden. I placed a bird house on the corner and enjoyed watching two generations of house sparrows grow.”
Eve writes about how she saw God revealed through nature, and in this morning’s short devotional thought, Eve recounts the arrival of a male sparrow who investigated the bird house, “peering in and out of the hole and around it.” Once satisfied, he “hopped to the tip of a weather station pole secured beside the little house and began his call. Day after day he performed his little routine, jumping back and forth from rooftop to pole, into the open doorway and out, calling patiently, seeking the one who would partner with him.”
This bird reminded Eve of Jesus, who “calls and tugs on our hearts, never giving up.”
Seventeenth-century Quaker activist Stephen Crisp argued that if people knew Jesus, they would have no need to build a refuge or place of safety: “They would trust in the living God, and he should be their God and their rock, and they would venture their concerns upon him, both in this world and that which is to come.”
This is what Eve notices about Jesus in her observations of the sparrow. “He longs to partner with us.... He has prepared the perfect place for us.... He has created a place of safety and desires us to join him.... He has chosen us to be his.”
Thank you,
Eric Muhr
P.S. Seeds of hope is the three-year campaign to fund the ministry of Barclay Press by developing new titles, supporting small churches, and balancing the budget. In order to stay on target to meet our goal of $162,000 by December 31, 2020, we need to get to $39,405 by September 1, 2018. As of this morning, we have raised $31,580 in gifts and pledges.
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