Strawberries and God

This Saturday Russ and Walter began a conversation about how one could theologically connect strawberries and God...Russ and I have since continued that conversation and in doing so have come up with several points to share.  Since we are still all coming down from Strawberry Festival - some having nightmares of mounds of strawberries coming to life, some still dealing with the book keeping of such an event and others feeling excited and relief that it is "over," I thought I would share some Strawberry musings:

1.  The Word of God is like that of the Strawberry plant.  It takes hold, roots in and grows within people, producing good fruit and helping each of us to be the best we can be.  Then when the planet is strong it sends out tendrils.  The word of God does the same thing, sending out new plants, that hopefully land on good soil in which they can take root, grow and continue to spread.  The Word of God thus the Good News of Christ is like that of a spreading Strawberry planet.

2. Likewise, the Love of God is like that of the plant. If you choose to believe instead of the "Word" but that they plant is the "love" of God, love spreads out from the source - God.  The tendrils of love continue to be spread.  Some tendrils will fall on good soil, those willing to feel God's love, some tendrils will fall on poor soil, and never be felt - yet God's love still tried.  God's love is never abandons us, it is us who gives up on God's love. On a plus, many strawberries are the same shape as our hearts - so hey, it is meant to be love, right?

3. Strawberries hold their seeds on the outside, for all to see.  We are called as Christians, not to hid our faith but instead show our faith.  Not to hid our gifts of the spirits or our seeds but instead let them show and sin.  Let us wear our Christianity out for all to see.

Strawberry Festival

This week everyone is reeling in the busy life that is strawberry festival.  Each year we come together, work really hard and have an amazing fundraiser.

So if you aren't volunteering yet, contact Patty there is lots to do! 

If you want to join us for the fun come out to Wolcott park in the morning, noon or afternoon.  Parade at noon :) 

We Lift Ourselves Up

Yesterday the church celebrated Pentecost, tonight at our alternative to Sunday worship, we too will be celebrating Pentecost.  The Birthday of the Church - the celebration of when the Spirit descend to earth and all those baptized in Christ received this amazing and powerful gift.

I was recently thinking of balloons and filling them up with Helium and bringing them to church - for the Church's birthday - because everyone seems to do that on Pentecost, but then I started to really think about this. And I had a revelation for me, but perhaps this isn't new to others.

What happens when we put different thing into balloons and how does that then relate to our relationship with God?  Well when we exhale, we exhale Carbon Dioxide, this is a substance that is the waste of our breathing process.  And what happens when a balloon is filled by our own hot air?  It sinks.  Relate this to God: when we let addiction, sin, food, negative thoughts or general negativity, and the list could go on; then our relationship with God is like that of the balloon filled with Carbon Dioxide it just sinks.

When you fill a balloon of nitrogen, which is what makes up most of the air around us, the balloon, just floats and moves across the air.  It doesn't sink, it doesn't go up it sort of just is.  It is easy to push it around.  Relate this to God: when we just live our lives each day, moving around in the secular world without thought or regard to God.  When we let the busy life of our world let us just float through life without purpose then we are like the nitrogen balloon.  In this analogy, you have the ability to float down a bit or perhaps even float up a bit but that requires the movement by an outside force.

But when we fill a balloon with helium, it raises and keeps on raising.  In fact, when filled with Helium it takes nothing more then the balloon and the Helium to raise, it comes from the essence of what that balloon is.  Relate this to God: when we allow the Holy Spirit to truly work within us - by developing a relationship and trusting it, then we are able to raise above.

A balloon is just a piece of rubber, it has no other purpose until it is filled and becomes an actual balloon.  Our lives can be purpose driven lifting us up by our own faith and relationship to new understandings or our lives can be filled with blah.  Let us dedicate ourselves to following God's purpose and let the Holy Spirit fill us up.