No Other Rock

And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias. ~ Luke 9:30

Let me tell you about my back yard. I can never truly explain to people how much it means to me. It may sound a little selfish, but it’s true.

Just today, I spent several hours out there with my three-year-old daughter, Daphne. We planted string beans, two varieties of lettuce and three varieties of tomatoes in the garden. Then, we uprooted a gold star potentilla and moved it a couple feet because it was being run over by pampas grass that I didn’t expect to grow so ferociously (but I love it - even though I am alergic to it). We also moved some lambs tail because I just placed it poorly when I originally planted it.

We had a nice fire going all afternoon and the radio broadcast of the Cubs-Nationals game could be dimly heard from the window of our house if you listed close enough. It was a good day that allowed my daughter and I to bond a little bit (she really was a good helper in the garden). I taught her about worms (which are now among her favorite things) and we talked about her having a little brother or little sister in the near future. I explained to her how much she is loved and that even though there will be a baby coming in a few months (despite her insistence that he or she was coming next week), her mom and I would still love her just as much as we always have and always will.

I think I got through to her.

It was nice to sit at the picnic table and have that conversation with Daphne. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could sit at a picnic table next to God and a warm fire on a brisk spring afternoon?

Would you believe that I do so quite often?

Let me explain: The other thing I love about my back yard involves its location. We live in an area of town that is near a Methodist church and a Catholic church. I attend neither, but it doesn’t matter.

What does matter is the significance those churches have in my life - probably without anyone affiliated with the churches knowing so. At various times of the day (typically noon and 6PM), both churches sound their bells - which are really some other sort of device that plays wonderful melodies and hymns.

Often, I am out in my back yard digging, pulling weeds, putting toys away or simply relaxing when the bells begin to play. Knowing where the heavenly sounds eminate probably have something to do with it, but I start to remember the many loved ones I have known who have gone home to be with God. I feel their presence and I feel God’s presence in my life.

I often pray and I’m always appreciative enough to thank God for speaking to me. It never stops to amaze me that a light breeze will occur during the melodies, and the trees sound happier, birds are chirping merrily and for those fleeting moments, life is good. Life is good indeed.

Today’s devotion made me understand why I laud my back yard so greatly :

And are not all the departed in Christ alive to concerns on earth, especially matters of salvation? Do they not pray for us? Is their ministry as priests in Christ aborted at death? Is there a thick cloud of ignorance flung between them and us? Moses and Elijah seem to imply the very opposite! Perhaps in the consummation yet to be, we shall be astonished at what we owe to the prayers of departed Christian loved ones.

While the bells sound their hymns, I am again in fellowship with both my grandfathers, my father, my grandmother, close friends and other family members who have since passed from this earth. I know they watch over me and even pray for me just as I have prayed for each of them.

Today, my prayer for you and I is that we will seek to fellowship with God and be thankful for all He so graciously provides.