It Was Just a Farm

I've been thinking about a comment our granddaughter made while she was here with us. She and her brother (and I) spent several hours setting up the "farm" on our dining room table. Few details were overlooked! Fences were built, a pond constructed for the ducks, milking cows separated from the non-milking cows, a broom in the farmhouse kitchen and Christmas wreath on its front...You get the idea, don't you?

MY thought was that at least an hour or two each day would be spent actually PLAYING with the farm! When I suggested this the following day, Abigail's comment was, "I really don't like to play with it that much. I just like to set it up."

Paul, in Colossians 2:6-7 wrote, So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

I'm thinking about the temptation to get "set up" in the Christian life and then "drop the ball" in the sense of standing back and looking at the gift of salvation without actually getting involved with it daily...without revisiting the wonder and beauty of it and integrating its implications into our daily lives.  Without being a "player"!

How sad it would be to miss the awesome pleasure of interaction with God as we "work out" our salvation!

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13)

It was just a farm.  The table is empty now,
but my head is still spinning with the lesson God is teaching me from it!

12 comments:

  1. I admire your ability to see life lesson's in the simple and ordinary.:)

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  2. This is a wonderful timely message,
    Rebecca. Would you believe my pastor
    and I were talking on the phone about
    this very thing last night?!
    Hope you're feeling better now.
    Love your new Christmas look.
    Blessings,
    Sandy

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  3. This goes along with the "Out of the Manger and Into the World" essay I wrote for my group this week. I love "setting up" Christmas...and get depressed when I have to take it down. But we need to follow that baby out of the manger and continue to work out our salvation in the hope He brought and live our lives in Him!
    Great thoughts this morning Rebecca!

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  4. Oh, YES, Jacquelyn! SO applicable to Christmas!

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  5. What a powerful analogy, Rebecca. Thank you so much for this blog. It is lovely and carries a lovely message.
    Hugs and love to you from Jackie

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  6. And what a good lesson this is for all of us. It is much easier to drop the ball. I have to remind myself of this EVERYDAY. It's not an easy task to be a good Christian. But it is a most rewarding one!
    Love Di ♥

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  7. Great and timely lesson for all of us! I love reading in Philipians and read the second chapter today!

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  8. Amen!

    What a fabulous lesson & reminder. My life is so full & rich today by comparison to it's impoverished condition when I lived according to the world's way.

    What a gift it is to live beneath God's gaze.

    Blessings,
    Kathleen

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  9. Wow!!! You are amazing, dear Rebecca!!! I love this!! What wisdom and insight you have! I'm always lifted when I visit your blog!!! Just stopped by to give you a "hello" here, and I find this gem! Love it! Love you! ~Janine XO

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  10. oh yes Rebecca... I GET IT too! What a good message!!

    Hugs!

    Sonja

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  11. Oh, my, Rebecca, I was just thinking about this! I have set up my Christian life but that's about as far as I've gone, and I have even dismantled it time and time again, and then re-set the 'stage' of it again, but I never feel that I have actively participated.
    I have all these good intentions but I never seem to really follow through. And just this morning I was watching some silly old black and white movie, and one of the characters was talking about the master/servant relationship, and it was a beautiful description of service and love, and it was a revelation to me, and I just thought, yes, that is what my relationship with God should be, that is what it can be. If only...
    The spirit is yearning but not really willing I guess to make the sacrifices and the changes that must be made.

    Love to you,
    Eileen

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Writing a Song a Week #3

Writing a Song a Week #3
♪ I wait for the Lord; my soul waits and in his word I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning ♪ (Psalm 130:5-6)