Thoughts about Job Cha.14, and Ezekiel Cha. 37

( I took these pics in our front yard, a few days ago)
Hello, precious friends, dear to my heart! I am sorry I've been away for so long! I've been very busy teaching, and helping take care of my grandmother, who has the beginning stages of dementia, and recently came home after hip replacement surgery.

This Summer has been a brutal one for the state of Texas. We are in a prolonged period of drought, and experienced record breaking stretches of unbearable heat, as well as thousands of acres of wildfires in many different areas, across the state.

My family watered and watered and watered our lawn this summer.... but it felt like a losing battle, let me tell you! Just keeping up with the potted plants was quite the ordeal.... and, in spite of our best efforts, some of the grass died.... and there are sad patches that are dried up and brittle, and are very, very evidently dead and gone...

Imagine my delight and surprise the other day, as I walked through the front yard, looking at a particularly ugly, dry patch, only to see that a Morning Glory Vine had sprung up in the midst of it, and was growing with all of it's might!!! Oh, my Goodness! How that sight refreshed me..... and got me to thinking how that even in the seemingly driest, most barren, and trying parts of our lives..... God can still bring beauty and glory.... just by the touch of His hand and the closeness of His dear Spirit.....

And then, a little later, this scripture passage came to my mind:
Job Chapter 14:

7: "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

8: "Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

9: "Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant."

And I thought about how that near this Morning Glory Vine, I have a beautiful Boston Fern in a pot... that I have lovingly watered all Summer long.... and I thought about how that somehow, the scent of that water... the smallest trickle or run off must have been reaching that vine...... and helped it to grow up out of that old dead, dry, patch of burned up grass scorched brown and lifeless by the Texas heat.....

And I thought of friends and loved ones, dear to my heart, that have turned and walked away from the Lord..... and how that it seems right now that every desire for Him and His House has dried up within them..... and been scorched by the cares of life or the want of worldly things....... and how that in spite of it all.... He still loves them, with an everlasting love..... and He is still reaching for them..... and still wants to draw them to Himself and Save and comfort and heal their brokeness..... and these Scriptures gave me Hope, and Joy, and built my Faith.....

Lord Jesus, let that scent of the water of Your Precious Spirit reach these dear ones today.....

Ezekiel Chapter 37:

1: "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

2: "And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

And verse 5 says: "Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:"

These verses give me even more hope..... can those old dead, dry bones, live again?? YES! Praise the Lord! He is ABLE to restore and heal, deliver and save, and make a way out of no way! For He is Mighty, and He is GOD!