"Outdoor Wedding Wisdom" - Peter A. Black

I hope you and your loved ones enjoyed a safe and pleasant Canada Day celebration. My wife and I did. However, instead of writing about that, I’ve chosen to write about a family wedding, in which our oldest grandson and his fiancée were the bride and groom. 

(And yet, it’s not so much about them, but . . .)

This was the eve of what was to be a fairy-tale open-air wedding, set against the backdrop of shimmering sunlight over blue water, under an azure sky. More than one hundred chairs, set up in a series of orderly formations facing a handsome gazebo, awaited the arrival of the bride and groom and all involved in the wedding party for the rehearsal.

Gazebo: Bogey's Inn by St. Clair River, Ont. Photo: mrmblack

In the meantime, inside the banquet hall, several ladies (my wife and mothers of the bride and groom, among them) hurriedly steamed and ironed scores of white chair-back covers, plus some table covers. Other friends and families worked on decorations and table places, centre pieces and setting up a sound system. The rehearsal went beautifully, and eventually all found their way respectively to their motel rooms and homes.

The big day dawned, breaking and waking us all with angry skies, lightning bolts, thunderous claps and torrential rain. Phone calls and text messages zipped throughout the region that the venue for the ceremony was being moved to the church sanctuary in Corunna. During the hours between morning and afternoon, the storm passed through and the weather completely turned around. 

A number of guests and family folks gave retrospective sighs of relief that we’d been able to gather in an air-conditioned sanctuary instead of sitting outside under a blazing sun in high humidity. And then later, it was everyone back to the waterside venue for the reception. The adjacent banquet facilities were also

air-conditioned.

It was a marvellous event. The wisdom of having forethought and making back-up arrangements in event of inclement weather became fully evident, as circumstances proved.

Mitch and Ally: A couple in love with Jesus

Much goes into planning an event such as this. Surely much should also go into planning a life, and end of life, too! 

Estate planning is becoming a big thing in our culture, nowadays; pre-arranged and prepaid funerals too, and it is a good way to go, if at all possible. 

Not all people marry, but all people die.

 

Credit: iStockphoto; googlefree

How well do we prepare for that? Life is neither a bowl of cherries nor all sunshine and ice-cream sundaes. Storms of life inevitably come, and one day they will be over. The Scriptures speak starkly, telling us that people are “destined to die once, and after that to face judgement.”* That’s a pretty heavy cloud, I’d say.

Nevertheless, God can give us the wisdom to prepare for life beyond this life, through our trusting in Jesus Christ His Son’s sacrificial death and blood shed on the cross: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”**

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*Hebrews 9:27; Romans 6:23. **

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Peter A. Black is a retired pastor – well, sort of retired – and lives in Southwestern Ontario. He writes a weekly inspirational newspaper column, P-Pep! and is author of Raise Your Gaze ... Mindful Musings of a Grateful Heart, and Parables from the Pond – a children's / family book. ~~+~~

The Garden as a Lesson in Growth-- Carolyn Wilker

        

I’m teaching my granddaughters who are 4 and 6 about gardening. It's an ongoing lesson. They enjoy helping me plant and giving the plants a drink. I’m sure they’d be like me, as a child, if it was a large garden, dreading the long rows, but ours are much shorter than the large garden we had on the farm. 

posing at the garden with her own tools

The garden teaches about growing. After sowing seeds, we look forward to seeing those first shoots poke above the ground. The children are gentle with the tender small plants that we set in the ground. They know that water helps the plants grow and so they love to get out the watering can and help it along.

ready with the watering can

The shoots are those first signs that something is happening underground, just as when we begin to learn something new. An interesting thought begins to work its way into our mind. It brings more questions and then the desire to learn more about that appealing topic.

As in the garden, where there’s enough sun and rain, growth happens. The plants produce blossoms, signs of continuing growth and promise of fruit. The same thing goes for people when they are encouraged and taught. And it’s not just in children. Give adults enough encouragement and opportunity, and they produce fruit too.

Perhaps that’s why my father so liked trees. He’d see the results of the trimming and pruning to give the tree a chance to grow stronger. He helped it along and watched nature do the rest. And he guided and taught us too.        

  My father worked the land. It was part of his livelihood, but part of his passion too, and his interest in the environment went alongside it. Preparing the soil by ploughing and cultivating, feeding it—albeit with that smelly stuff called ‘manure’—and then later, putting in the seed.

That’s not the only lesson of the garden. Plants die at the end of a season. When the blossoms are spent and the plant is done producing, it withers and fades. If we leave the plant in the garden to break down, it leaves food for the next planting season.

When humans die, especially those we love, young or old, it’s definitely painful. The body grows old and becomes weary and can no longer thrive as it once did, as it did for my Dad. We grieve and know that death is part of life, and that it's hard. And we know there's more to come. We realize that lessons imparted along the way can help the next generation grow and mature too.

At Dad’s funeral just one month ago, our theme for his service was trees. One of my sisters had the brilliant, and very fitting, idea to give out white pine seedlings to people who’d come to remember our father. All 200 tree seedlings arrived just in time—the day before the service. Another sister created tags and attached them, and all of the tiny trees found a home.

The cross Dad built from a tree, in the sanctuary for his service

Our grandchildren will watch their trees grow, and they will water them too, encouraging the little seedlings to spread their roots and grow tall. And for those smaller ones who won’t remember their Great-Grandpa as well, they can watch the tree grow as their parents tell them the story of one they loved.

 

my father

“A time to plant, a time to reap.” The philosopher in Ecclesiastes (3:2) must have been a gardener too.

our tiny seedling

Carolyn R. Wilker is an editor and author from southwestern Ontario. 

Nature's 'Free' Gifts (Peter Black)

It’s wonderful that nature offers so many free gifts, for instance, the rapturous sight of a cardinal’s scarlet plumage and the enchanting musicality of his sweet song to his mate. Necessary to our experiencing and enjoying such things are the faculties of vision and hearing and the mental capability of appreciating them.

Source:Shutterstock

Too numerous to mention, even in a single day, nature’s free gifts surround us and enrich our lives. Several weeks ago my wife and I set out on what we expected to be a brief walk along a local trail. Several days before, we noted that the wayside brambles were producing a fair crop of berries, although most were far from ripe – green, with some turning red.

However, nature surprised us during that next walk through the glen, for we spotted a patch just ripe for the picking. We cut our walk even shorter and took to picking the gleaming black morsels, instead. They’d ripened rapidly and weren’t yet picked over by other blackberry lovers. May had a plastic bag handy, so we got busy. I felt like a kid again and recalled the bountiful wild blackberry-picking days of my childhood in England and Scotland.

 

Wild berries are nature’s free gifts. Free to the birds and free to those of us who take the time to pick them. But were they really free? We paid the price in berry-stained clothes, mosquito bites and thorn pricks, and scratched-up legs, because we hadn’t dressed suitably for the job, neither had we applied insect repellent.

GoogleImagesRoyaltyFree

That experience kick-started me into ruminating about nature’s free gifts in the wider sense – the air we breathe, the water we drink, among countless others. Although humans can produce modest amounts of water through several chemical processes (such as through the combustion of hydrocarbons and condensing the moisture generated) we don’t actually create this essential element.

However, we are realizing more and more that there’s a price to be exacted for failing to take steps to protect nature's benefits from the environmental pollution that we’ve generated. It also costs to protect ourselves directly from pollution and its consequences.

For example, nature’s bountiful food from river, lake and sea has been there for the human taking for millennia. But, as we now know, large-scale inadequately managed resources and over-fishing have reduced stocks in many areas. Also, chemical contamination from industrial effluent discharged into sewers and rivers and the toxins generated from human activity, contained in soil run-off, eventually find their way into the flesh of fish and marine life. These can potentially cause sickness or disease in both animals and humans who consume them.

We did nothing to create the great reservoirs of crude oil underneath the ocean bed or

Public Domain

underground, yet its extraction and refining incurs great cost. Gold, silver and gem mining are costly businesses, too, although they offer great rewards.

At the other end of the scale, in the classical song, the boy who plucked the pretty “rose so red, in the forest growing,” paid a price with a painful prick and a bloody finger. Enough said, suffice it to say that nature’s free gifts do have a cost at one point or another.

God paid the price of providing the remedy for the pollution of our sins and shortcomings, in giving His Son Jesus Christ up to the horrific death on the cross of crucifixion. While many people scoff at this, there are yet others who, embracing the message and receiving Jesus as Lord and Saviour, enjoy a restored relationship with the Almighty.

I’m grateful for such a relationship with God and the profound sense of belonging, with grace and peace, that I’ve received. These are His free love gifts to us. Why would anyone refuse them?

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The above piece was adapted from an article in Black's weekly column, P-Pep! published in The Watford Guide-Advocate, July 16, 2015.

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Peter's second book is a compilation of inspirational articles on a variety of themes from his weekly column. These are interspersed with brief expressions intended to encourage. Ebook edition is now available through Amazon.

 

ISBN: 978-0-9920074-2-3 (Angel Hope Publishing)

Email
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Peter's first book: “Parables from the Pond” – a children's / family book (mildly educational, inspirational in orientation, character reinforcing). Finalist – Word Alive Press. ISBN: 1897373-21-X. The book has found a place in various settings with a readership ranging from kids to senior adults.
Black's inspirational column, P-Pep! appears weekly in The Guide-Advocate (of Southwestern Ontario). His articles have appeared in 50 Plus Contact and testimony, and several newspapers in Ontario.

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Going to the Heart - HIRD

By the Rev. Dr. Ed Hird 

It is far too easy to look at outward appearances, and miss the heart of the matter.  The Hebrew prophet Samuel, before choosing King David, was told: “People look at the outward appearances but God looks at the heart.”  In North America, we can easily be three thousand miles wide and one inch deep.  We can easily be swallowed by the latest cultural fad, and never discover who we really are.  I love going to the gym, and keeping healthy.  But as mentioned in my recent book Restoring Health, it can’t just be about the outer appearances.  We need to look at health holistically in body, mind and spirit.

The Good Book says ‘Above all else, guard your heart for out of it are the issues of life.’  Our ‘heart’ refers to the core of our personality, our identity, whom we really are.   Many people have invested so much into keeping other people happy that they have very little idea whom they really are.  They confuse their core identity with their latest job, their education, their bank account or relationships, all of which may be very transitory.  The Good Shepherd said “Out of the heart, the mouth speaks”.   Sometimes in the disappointments of life, our heart can turn hard, like a stone.  Our hearts need melting, so that they can become soft again.  When our heart shuts down, we stop caring.  We slip into cynicism and bitterness.  God does not care about how good we look on the outside.  He goes to the heart of the matter.  God wants a genuine relationship with each of us.  It has been said that Jesus died on the cross from a broken heart.  He poured out his heart of love for each of us from Calvary’s tree.  Most Canadians believe in God, but we can easily keep God at a distance.  God is into intimacy.  God wants us to open our hearts to his love.   This love can never be forced.  It can only be offered.  When we open our hearts to the Father’s love, something happens at the core of our being.

 

When I was age 17 in the last few months of Grade 12, I had a life-changing encounter with the Father’s love.  Suddenly my heart, my core personality, was powerfully changed.  I was a new creation in Christ.  I had a new purpose and reason to live.  Within a week, I felt a call to be an Anglican priest.  My grandmother and mother had known for years that I would become a priest.   I was going to become an electrical engineer like my father.  God touched me at a heart level.  I had been going to church for many years, but nothing had connected.   Love changes everything.  When I finally understood that God loved me deeply, I was undone.  My whole world was turned undone.  God loves you just as much as he loves me.  God is waiting to touch each of us at the heart level.  The heart of the matter is our heart.  My prayer for those reading this article is that each of us will open our hearts to God’s amazing love for each of us.

 

The Rev. Dr. Ed Hird, Rector

St. Simon's Church North Vancouver

Anglican Mission in Canada

-an article for the July 2015 Deep Cove Crier

-author of Battle for the Soul of Canada and Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit

-co-author of 2nd Cup of Hot Apple Cider

Two Sides of the Cross: Humility and Pride by Rose McCormick Brandon

Humility acknowledges the sufferings of Jesus and accepts that He suffered for us. Pride glosses over His sufferings and refuses to think about them.

Humility acknowledges that only the cross erases sin. Pride says, "There are many ways to holiness. I'm not so bad, no worse than anyone else."

Humility confesses sin. Pride says, "I'm as good as the next person."

Humility embraces the cross. Pride turns its head in embarrassment.

Humility throws its arms around Jesus and thanks Him for salvation. Pride ignores Him.

Humility kisses His feet. Pride slaps His face.

Humility weeps. Pride smirks.

Humility is undone by the sadness of the crucifixion. Pride says, "what's all the fuss?"

Humility walks to the foot of His cross. Pride walks on by.

Humility calls Him friend. Pride pretends not to know Him.

Humility comes to the cross alone. Pride runs off with the crowd.

Humility admits to being a sinner. Pride says, "Nobody's going to point the finger at me and call me a sinner."

Humility admits to needing Him. Pride calls Him a crutch.

Humility breaths, "Thank you Jesus." Pride is silent.

Remembering where we came from and considering where we'd be without Jesus helps us to stay humble.

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Rose McCormick Brandon's books, including her latest, Promises of Home - Stories of Canada's British Home Children, are available at her website, Writing from the Heart.

A member of The Word Guild and The Manitoulin Writers Circle. Rose and husband, Doug, summer on Manitoulin Island where her pioneer ancestors settled and the home of his favourite fishing holes. The rest of the year, they live in Caledonia, Ontario, near their three children and two grandchildren.