Can you see it?

I saw it. This morning, when I let the chickens out of the coop, which protects them from the bobcats and raccoons and coyotes. And in the fact that we even have chickens in the first place. 

I saw it when we went for a walk down the lane. 

I saw it in the abundance of beautifully designed greenery for us to enjoy -- an amazing variety of trees and birds and insects. 

And I saw it in the thorns that grew right alongside the pretty wildflowers. 

I saw it in the poison ivy that we continually tell the boys to watch out for. Cael practices his counting on the leaf clusters we find. "Leaves of three, let them be." 

I saw it in the rocks filled with fossils that line our creek bed and road. 

I saw it in the dead frog we found on the road, a casualty of a fast-moving vehicle. 

I saw it in our Resurrection Lilies. Beautiful flowers that give their pollen to bees that will sting if we bother them. 

I saw it as he struggled to throw rocks into the creek, while his brother tossed with ease. 

I saw it when he cheerfully, and without my asking, vacuumed the floor this morning, and then whined and complained while we went for the walk. 

I saw it in his answer as we discussed the reason for all these things: "But it was Adam and Eve's fault. It's not my fault." 

I saw it in little boy struggling with cancer, in a friend's troubled marriage, in a soldier separated from his family because of war, in emails about helping orphans in Nicaragua and saving babies from death and dismemberment in America. I saw it in the very food we ate -- the chicken we had for supper and the ham we had for lunch. 

And I saw it in myself -- in my impatience with the boys, in my pride, in my selfishness. 

Can you see it? When you look around, do you see a beautiful world originally created by a good, loving God and now scarred and crippled by the Curse brought by sin? The sin of Adam and Eve -- and the sin of me and you. I reminded him that this is our fault -- we disobey the commands of the Creator every day. None of us is without sin. This world that we now live in is the one of our making -- it's the world we said we wanted when we told God we do would do things our way. 

We take life instead of give it. 

We hate instead of love. 

We speak lies instead of truth. 

We are proud instead of humble. 

We are selfish instead of breathing grace. 

We are mean to other image-bearers instead of extending kindness to all. 

We profess our selves to be wise instead of admitting we know next to nothing. 

We kick against every beautiful quality of the sovereign Creator of the universe. And we live with the sad and ugly effects of this all around us:

The thorns that came when God cursed the very ground He had created to give us abundant life;

The plants that give us rashes instead of health as they were originally designed to do;

The animals that died in the Flood (a worldwide result of sin) and whose remains we find as fossils;

The death that was and is the ultimate punishment for our sin;

The accompaniments to death -- the sickness, the disease, the disabilities, the suffering, the pain, the brokenness. 

Sometimes the weight of what I see is overwhelming. And I hate it. I hate seeing what I have done to this world. 

But I love knowing that there is a living, loving, truthful, gracious, kind, all-wise, and good God that I can run to. The very one that created me in His own image. 

And that His Son, the perfect Jesus Christ, clothed Himself with flesh, humbled Himself, and became obedient to the very punishment He subjected His creation to -- the death I deserve. For my sake. 

And that He showed His power over death when He rose from the grave -- an event that was substantiated by over 500 eye-witnesses. 

And that He mercifully grants redemption from this Curse to those who forsake what they've done -- these sins -- and believe in Him and His payment for sin on our behalf. In His kindness -- in allowing us to truly see the effects of our sin --  He leads us to repentance. 

And that He graciously offers the promise of restoration to that original way of life -- the one that clearly reflected His nature -- those who have received the gift of eternal life. 

I'm so thankful for the hope He holds out to His image-bearers -- to all who repent and believe. 

And I'm so thankful that He hears our cries for mercy. 

And I'm so thankful for the promise of that future day when there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more crying. Just joy. And life.  

Can you see it? 

The Sundew

You might remember that I recently acquired a Venus flytrap, which is currently trapping flies outside on my patio. Because I also wanted to trap tiny gnats and other insects, my carnivorous plant expert friend suggested I add a sundew to my new menagerie. Since my flytrap had already survived all of a week or two at our place, I decided to I was up for another meat-eating plant. 

Last night, my friends Chris and Georgia, the liaisons between Ron and me, delivered the plant to us. And this is what Ron told me about it: 

Greetings Stacia, Your latest plant pet is called "Drosera filiformis ssp. filiformis," or simply "northern dewthread sundew." This plant, similarly to the Venus flytrap, is a sun-lover. Six hours or more of direct sunlight per day will keep this plant happy. Keep the bottom half to 1/3 of the pot submerged in [distilled or rain] water at all times during the summer. Each leaf (thread) will capture and consume several insects before turning brown and drying up. This is normal. You can trim dead leaves or leave them on to gross out your friends.

New leaves will uncurl upward, like a party favor. Old leaves will shrivel downward.

You'll notice seed pods forming on two tall stalks. They'll first blacken and then open in a few weeks. Dust-like seeds will simply fall out of the pods. THIS PLANT REPRODUCES LIKE A WEED! Pour the contents of the pods on the soil around the other plants and you'll have an army of them next spring.

Dewthreads are murderous consumers of small flies, gnats, and mosquitoes.

In the winter the individual plants (there are several in the pot you have) will form fuzzy "hibernacula." They are very cold-tolerant - much more so than Venus flytraps.

It also produces lots of pretty pink flowers in the spring, which turn into seedpods. 

I was happy to see that, in transit, it had already captured a few insects, proving to me its carnivorous prowess. It can also stay. And, if you're in the market for one, Ron suggested this site. Happy carnivorous planting!