I have been wanting to blog for about a month now. Ever since the weather started warming up and the flowers started blooming my mind has been thinking about the goodness of God and how the Spring season seems to make even humanity "bloom".
In one of my ESL certificate classes we learned about Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and I discovered that I test really high in the Naturalist Intelligence. Honestly, I think this one may just be a category he invited to make the not-so-intelligent feel like they are still smart.:) However, it did make me realize that I love the natural world around me more than the average person. I think this was instilled in me by many members of my family. All the women in my family love flower beds and gardening and all the men (and some women) have taken me on walks in the woods telling me about the types of trees I'm looking at, etc. I've been catching bugs, lizards, frogs, fish and various other "critters" (as my aunt and I call them) since I was about 3, and you will never hear me squeal when a bug crawls/flies by. My childhood was essentially a lesson in the beauty of God's creation which was all around me.
With that being said, I have started to own the fact that I love nature. I absolutely love the trees and flowers! I have more potted plants than cat ladies have cats and I don't care!! They are beautiful and they make me happy when I walk in my little room at night.
So, I was originally going to blog about Spring and all those things that go with it, but something really exciting happened before I found time to do that. I got engaged!! And I didn't get engaged just anywhere, but in a garden! The quote above is written on this monument in Duke Gardens (see pic below) right in front of the bench where Nate proposed.
The flower bloom on the monument is a dogwood flower. Dogwoods are one of my very favorite trees, they are the state flower of NorthCarolina, and they are blooming right now! So, in my mind this spot was absolutely perfect.
Afterwards, Nate said he thought it was a good place to propose because humanity and marriage all began in a garden and so he thought it was fitting that our marriage plans started in a garden as well. I definitely agree.
The garden is also where humanity fell and sinned for the first time. Nate and I were also reminded of our sin on our beautiful day in the garden. I started a silly fight that turned into a battle of pride and I would not admit defeat. I also did all of this right after I had read an article that same morning that discussed "losing in marriage". A quote from the article summarizes it well, "It's (losing in marriage) finding ways to be humble and open, even when everything in you says that you're right and they are wrong." Boy had I lived out the exact opposite of that! All of this before I had any idea that this was to be the day I would say, "yes" to my future husband.
The bad attitude and scowling face did not last long before I was crying and apologizing for how selfish and motived by pride I am. Nate of course comforted me and in the middle of my blubbering about how retched and selfish I am he simply said, "I love you". Something about hearing "I love you" in the moment that you know you are the biggest sinner makes you all the more thankful for the one who loves you. God did something so much more amazing by giving us His Son in that "while we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). But even before that, in the moment that Adam and Eve sinned, "The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them."(Genesis 3:21) In the moment of their shame, in the moment that they knew they had done wrong and should be punished and should be ashamed, God covered them. He took away their shame and gave them garments of skins. God is good. He LOVES us. He shows us what love is.
And we were DEAD in our trespasses and sin. . . "BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great loved with which he loved us, . . . made us alive together with Christ."!!!! God did that!
And so, when the dormant trees start budding and blooming (and inevitably the pollen starts destroying our sinuses) and the new green leaves start bursting forth I am reminded that God has also given us NEW LIFE! Jesus has risen from the dead and He is alive; therefore, we too can have life in Christ!!! This is the good news and I think it is so perfect that Easter, the time which we celebrate Christ's death and resurrection, is also the time of year when all of God's creation is showing new life and is bursting forth with praise to our Heavenly Father and Creator. (I know the anology breaks down somewhere-- like dessert lands where there is never Spring, but just go with it!:)
Today, then, I would like to thank my Heavenly Father for forgiveness, eternal life, His faithfulness, the beauty of His creation, and for a wonderful fiance. I pray that I will honor God with my life and honor Nate as the one that God has blessed me with to walk through the rest of this earthly life. Together I pray that we will give God glory and seek to live lives that point others to the giver of True Life.
