Skip to main content

This summer be a FIG and DIG

Be a FIG and DIG
This is one of those days when you think you are doing one thing, and you end up doing another.  I thought I was going to be writing about “BALANCE,” you know—“to everything there is a season.”  Instead, I have spent the morning doing some study about fig trees in the Bible.  Yes,  I said “fig trees,” those things that cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness and signs of  the Hebrew People’s abundance and plenty during King Solomon’s time (Genesis 3:7 and 1 Kings 4:25). 

The stories most often retold about “figs” in the Bible are the account of Jesus cursing the tree that does not bear fruit, and the parable of the gardener bartering one more year during which he will work diligently to make a fig tree produce fruit.  I looked at 44 instances of “figs” which are medicine, food, abundance, sweet, shade giving and a long lived symbol of peace,  and  I found the parable of summer.  How did I miss this figgy morsel?  It appears in Matthew, Mark and Luke. It was right in front of me, and I didn’t see it!

29 Jesus told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. (Luke 21:29-30 NIV)

This parable gives us a marvelous moment to remember that summer will follow winter.  Summer was always coming, but we need to “see for (our)selves.” The wonders of the world can remind us that the “Kingdom of God is near” even though it was always there.  Just like that, I realize that I am writing about BALANCE.  Balance is not staying at perfect center, but it is adjusting and re-grounding ourselves when the stone, ripple, or gust of wind causes us to lean. 

This summer you have an opportunity to reach for balance with your family.  These Wednesday summer nights be a FIG and gather your Family In the Garden.  Volunteers will be available to help your family work together to provide fruits and vegetables for the Northside Ministries Food Pantry.   After work or school on Wednesdays, gather in the Community Garden of Second Presbyterian Church, from 4:00 pm until dark.  Rest in the comfortable seating and know that “you’ve got mail.”  The mail box holds a short story and family devotion.  There is also a list of tasks for smalls to talls.  Here’s a fun fact:  it is a wasp that makes the fig tree bear fruit; it is a teeny tiny wasp.  For that reason, you KNOW everyone is welcome in the Garden!

Your family will have a chance to DIG:

Devotion time
I Wonder Questions
Good works
 In case of rain, the Food Pantry will welcome your family to restock shelves and help clients shop for necessities.  


This summer be a Wednesday FIG and DIG in the Second Presbyterian Church Community Garden. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Easter came early this year...

Advent is about journey and anticipation and preparation. Christmas is about a gift and joy and the presence of the Living God breaking into darkness. Lent is about reflection and atonement and forgiveness. Easter is about life and victory and new life in Christ. Pentecost is about the birthday of the body of Christ, the Way, the whole church of believers. That is the church year in a nutshell.  What if they happen within the span of three weeks, or a week, or one night? This year Christmas and Easter collided. Twenty days is not long to go from confirmed diagnosis to  eternal life, but that was my father’s Advent, Lent and Christmas/Easter journey. He invited in friends, family and loved ones to witness his journey. He worked very hard to prepare my sisters and his twin brother’s daughters for a garden moment when he would die.  I have never wished for Advent nor Lent to be longer, but I wished for one more day--one more night--one more morning.  However, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

And on the seventh day...

Figure 1 http://www.montreat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Mountains-2-400x250-300x187.jpg We think of “Sabbath” as a time to NOT DO something.  We stop.  We wait.  We rest.  We sit.  However, that is a lot of work!  I think of Sabbath as “making a space.”  It is an active choosing, remembering, and prioritizing a holy space for God.  It is less about “letting go” and more about “leaning in” to the Breath of the Holy Spirit.  In this context Sabbath is a return to our making.  You see, in the beginning “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). It is the breath of the Lord God that stirs dust into human.  It is the breath of the Lord God that makes us living and gives us a life.  Therefore, “Sabbath” – a time for rest and renewal, is an opportunity to reach for that breath of God which gives u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where is the Love--Guest Blogger Rev. Caroline Dennis

(Spiritual Practices for Families: Giving Thanks) Where is the Love? In December, amidst the wrappings and the shouts of glee, we found a quiet time to come to the manger and contemplate the great Love that God sent, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Here, as sparkling Christmas lights give way to snow and rain and ice, as gathered family gives way to bill paying and schedule keeping, how might we hold on those manger moments when we embraced the Love that embraces us? In these more ordinary days, can we still see the light that leads us to Bethlehem, to the ordinary extraordinary places where Love shows up? Here is my invitation to you, and to your children:  Pause... in the middle of your "what's next" life... to see, hear, touch, smell, taste... all the amazing that is right here and now.  Point it out to one another like we might point out the twinkling lights on a Christmas tree.  Give thanks... for the warmth of the sweater, the wag of the do...
Post a Comment
Read more