April 2025 Highlights

• Urban Wilderness City Paradise Lectionary Project for April

• Wednesday 02 April • Another Trip to Torrance. I collaged the Stained Glass Windows I thought to capture this time. Have I mentioned google AI makes some really good collages, and has different options for us to make our own?

• Monday 07 April • Ground cover daisies. I don't know how many pics I've taken of ground cover at commercial sites. It's always fun and lively and even encouraging.

• Thursday 17 April • Florist Shop Easter Flowers in a collage by google AI.

• Saturday 19 April • My first time back in town in four years. Here are snacks from the annual Holy Saturday Easter workday; with covid and other disruptions I'm not sure when my last one was.

• Sunday 20 April • Easter Day, the Festival of Resurrection, Queen of Feasts. Lunch on the lawn included Persian Food for the end of Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

• Tuesday 22 April • doubles for Earth Day! I designed a poster for 2025 and my blog linked to six faves from previous years.

• Serendipitously, Earth Day also was the Fourth Tuesday Santa Monica Lunch Brunch I enjoyed for a second time. I collaged the lunch venue and some outside foliage.

Five Minute Friday :: Might

The gospel came to you not in word only,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with conviction.
I Thessalonians 1:5
• Five Minute Friday :: Might Linkup

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying,
"This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying,
'Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts.'" Zechariah 4:6

Zerubbabel was supposed to oversee finishing rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple, but construction had slowed down and run into a glitch, as we might say. This passage reassures him that [human] resources aren't sufficient to accomplish God's work, or even to get anything done properly and completely. Cooperation and partnership between earth and heaven gets it finished, finished well, and – maybe most important – on God's timeline, not ours.

Our human power and might and effort and related gifts aren't wrong at all. After all, they are "gifts" or givens from God, and they're necessary for the ministries God calls us to. Our work in this world always partners with God's Spirit at the behest of God's call. Do you remember when Moses dialogued with God regarding "Moses, your people" or "God, your people," because it's always both/and?

Glitches in our lives happen because too often we humans try to do too much under our own steam, looking at our own clocks and calendars, too often not acknowledging the Spirit. Maybe we don't want to bother God with those smaller concerns when so much of civilization and creation needs so much healing, repair, and rebuilding?

Late December 2023 I determined to take a six month half year gap time, but as days went by and I assessed my situation, I realized a gap year made more sense. Now the chronology has spilled over a few more months into 2025, but signs and circumstances have made it clear it's finally time to move on. On God's timeline, not mine. And I anticipate more delays, possibly a roadblock or a few.

"Trust the process" has become such a cliché because that's how life works. Immerse yourself in the journey, savor each hour and each day. Ya know what? That's how humans learn and grow, how ideas develop, how dreams and visions become real. That's the way God engages us and gets things done. Not by human might, humanity's power, but by the Spirit that created the world, the Spirit that redeemed creation, the Spirit that calls us into a new creation.

Anyone who has despised the day of small beginnings
will rejoice to see the plumbline of the Lord's house
in Zerubbabel's hand. Zechariah 4:10a

Can you imagine teaching and preaching God's word without guidance from the HS? Can you imagine spreading the gospel, being the good news of God with us, God among us, without trusting in and waiting for promptings and instructions from the HS? The same holds true for every aspect of every moment of our lives. Think about it!

The gospel came to you not in word only,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with conviction.
I Thessalonians 1:5

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Earth Day 2025

Our Power, Our Planet

From previous Earth Days:

• 2023 Invest In Our Planet

• 2020 50 Years :: #ClimateAction

• 2019 #ProtectOurSpecies

• 2018 #EndPlasticPollution

• 2015 #GreenCities

• 2008 Urban Oasis

Five Minute Friday :: Without

• Five Minute friday :: Without Linkup

• From Rolling Home by Eric Andersen

Truth, with all its far out schemes,
Lets time decide what it should mean;
It's not the time but just the dreams that die.
And sometimes when the room is still,
Time with so much truth to kill,
Leaves you by the window sill so tied
Without a wing, to take you high,
Without a clue to tell you why.

Chorus: But I don't know, I ain't been told,
Everybody wants a hand to hold.
They're so afraid of being old,
So scared of dying, so unknown
And so alone, rollin' home.

• Rolling Home lyrics

Time leaves us without any way to know why we're so alone and lonely, so afraid and scared (I didn't write to last week's scared prompt) of… everything, probably. But aging and dying are reasonable stand-ins for everything else we fear.

As songwriter musician Eric Andersen reminds us, time doesn't die, our times don't end. Well, our time on earth eventually does end, but while we're still here our options are open and generous. Endless? No, not for anyone. But somehow we sometimes lose those dreams. (Do you know how and why? Think about it!) Without a dream, we can't go far. Without a dream, we can't claim hope. Without our dreams, our days become routine, often bordering on unbearable.

Dreams energize us. Hitch your life to a star! Your own, your family's, your partner's, even the star-struck dreams and aspirations of the company you work for. Andersen says we're all alone, yet we're rolling home. Isn't homecoming our ultimate desire? A place of belonging, of safety, of overall well-being. A place that celebrates our dreams. A place with everything we need, a place without judgment, fear, loneliness, sorrow; a place and space without… fill in your fears.

Langston Hughes poetry reminds us (no, commands us):

Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
life is a broken winged bird
that cannot fly.

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Draw A Bird Day 2025

Thanks to social media, I remembered the annual Draw A Bird Day that happens every April 8th. This is an old birds drawing I like a lot; I'm augmenting it here with its companion fish.

Five Minute Friday :: Persuade

• Five Minute Friday :: Persuade Linkup

I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, not things present, nor things to come,

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

Nothing whatsoever can separate us from God's love and God's presence that is such a present to us. What about peeled pineapples? Just this afternoon one of my housemates made dinner for us and we finished with some fresh pineapple he'd diced into bite-size pieces.

Despite snow in western Canada and in some upper midwestern US states, in spite of chilly days here in LA, evidence of spring abounds in the northern hemisphere. If spring is here – because spring has sprung – winter must have visited, too. Aside from most people having at least a mild seasonal mood pattern; aside from shorter days-longer nights causing a bit of sadness for many; aside from fewer flowers and decreased greenery, less fresh fruit and veggies during the cooler months; our memories grow even shorter than the days, and we forget the glories of new life.

But did you know? Bright, colorful, spring flowers with their promise of even more splendid summer months for those of us with an endless estival love affair form only a hint of the reality; we could call it a type or a foreshadowing of the real thing.

The church has been observing Lent since early March. During Lent we follow Jesus to Jerusalem, to his trial, conviction, crucifixion, death, and burial. And on the third day? An empty grave and a risen Savior. Because nothing, no thing whatsoever, not even death, can keep us away from God's love in Jesus Christ. Not even bleak, cold, endless winter nights. Not even sweet peeled pineapple! I am persuaded!

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