The Sunflowers are BLOOMING!
In the past two weeks, our sunflowers have brightened so many spots in our flower beds. Given the hard rain we are expecting, they might be past their prime sooner rather than later.
Before the weather pulverizes them, come look!
Between them and the black-eyed Susans, I look a more competent gardener than in former years.
Pretty Impressive, eh?
These jolly flowers have been a more frequent theme in writing and painting as well as planting this summer. I planted them when the war initial news shocked us. Now, the war— and that initial shock has receded in the news.
Not for the people, though, who been invaded and brutalized, or for the people who are trying to help. Sunflowers remind me to keep praying . . . and not forgetting.
Waste of Muscle, waste of Brain,
Waste of Patience, waste of Pain,
Waste of Manhood, waste of Health,
Waste of Beauty, waste of Wealth,
Waste of Blood, and waste of Tears,
Waste of Youth’s most precious years,
Waste of ways the Saints have trod,
Waste of Glory, waste of God,—
War!
~G. A. Studdert Kennedy, “Waste,” The Sorrows of God and Other Poems, 1924
I am praying for the church in both Ukraine and Russia . . . and here in our beloved country . . .
Christians in community must again show the world, not merely family values, but the bond of the love of Christ. Increasingly the ordered fellowship of the church becomes the sign of grace for the warring factions of a disordered world. Only as the church binds together those whom selfishness and hate have cut apart will its message be heard and its ministry of hope to the friendless be received. —Edmund Clowney, THE CHURCH
Whew . . .
God Bless you Gentle reader; I hope you can enjoy sunflowers this August!
PS: FYI: Here some ways to put feet on our prayers — Paintings, etc from the Porch