When You Pray for Spinach, Reach for a Hoe

LI modeled my plan for watering the garden - at Niagara Falls.

Every so often the perfect photo from childhood survives. I liked this so much that I had posters made for the grandparents - long before Facebook.

I asked Mrs. I if she wanted spinach. She said yes, so that meant I had to go out and plant my new Malabar spinach vines. They produce enormous leaves and love heat.

Rain is on the way, but I watered everything anyway. Long ago I learned that the second stage of gardening is watering the seedlings. Planting the seed is not enough. The seedlings are quite vulnerable when they are starting, so I find it best to keep them well watered.

The ground was protected by rank weed growth, around the chain-link fence, so I had to cut and dig and rake. I created some broken ground where I sowed pole beans, Malabar spinach vines, and radishes. I put MiracleGro soil on top and tamped it down.

Soil in a bag is going to win over digging soil into a wheelbarrow - any day. Besides, I have no wheelbarrow.

The new sunflower row got mulch on top, to reduce weeds around the sunflower and hold in the water. I noticed that the alternate rows of mulch were still moist underneath the top layer. The newspapers were still soaked.

Sunflowers apparently send out a root chemical to suppress competition, so they take care of their own area well. I have tried to grow pole beans up their stalks, without any real success. Their broad leaves can effectively eliminate smaller plants that need sunlight.

Sassy Sue supervised my work, but only after a walk. She sat there barking at me until I gave in. She went outside for one reason only, and she seemed to think I tricked her. We went for a walk and came back to play with her squeaky ball. She had renewed her interest in chasing and catching her ball, so we cleared more of the limbs in the backyard.

We have a good gardening area in the back, a middle section in the shade, and the back area with a fair amount of sunshine. Once we got rid of the low-hanging branches, the middle area began to look more like a park.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers - One Possible Explanation for Apostasy

In the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, everyone looks the same. However, the pod people have taken over  various human bodies and continue to spread their menace by looking innocent. The normal ones warn the rest, but soon the unpodded get absorbed into the new weird order.

Here is the key description:

The invaders replace human beings with duplicates that appear identical on the surface, but are devoid of emotion or individuality. Wikipedia

I have a list of pod Lutherans who once thought publishing the truth was a good idea.
They contributed a lot of material, then began hissing and acting odd.

Men in Black, another classic sci-fi movie, argues persuasively that key people are from other planets, identifying Newt Gingrich as one. Tony Robbins is from Jupiter, as I recall.

I look at the denominations and wonder why no one is running around in circles, hair on fire. The Episcopalians elected a Presiding Bishop with almost no parish or executive experience. She began immediately to sue congregations to grab their properties, naming bishops and laity, but using church money to drive people out and shutter their once-prosperous congregations. The bishops resisted a bit, but enough to stop PB Katie Schori.

A total of four Canadian and US Episcopal/Lutheran groups -
Three unqualified women are running them into the ground.

ELCA has done the same with ELCA's Mark Hanson and soon with Elizabeth Eaton, who sent him packing. Like her hero Katie Schorie, Eaton has little experience, but a powerful faction behind her.

But the so-called conservative Lutherans really astonish me. They are actively dismembering everything while calling themselves confessional and even orthodox! They may fuss about something once or twice, but go along with it as soon as the tide turns.

My explanation goes deeper than Universal Objective Justification, that bizarre dogma excreted from Halle University as it declined into pure rationalism and honest Universalist Unitarianism.

Apostasy Originated with Creation Deniers and City Slickers
Which is worse - Creation deniers or city slickers? I have fun with undergraduates who have little appreciation for the natural world. Although they are Christian and confess the truth of the Scriptures, their practical knowledge of their own world is limited.

America was once a rural country, where a large share of the population lived from the land. They had to know animals, weather, soil, crops, weeds, insects, and disease to survive. My maternal grandfather earned a degree in agriculture from the University of Illinois. My paternal grandfather was also a farmer. 

As a result of her farming background and interest in science, my mother knew the weeds, butterflies, insects, spiders, and wildflowers of each area where she lived. As a Blackhawk hiking club member, she had additional mentors in nature as they explored new areas. Three of those hikers reached the ages of 90, 95, and 105. 

Most of the parables and sermons of Jesus are based upon Creation.

• The Sower and the Seed
• The Mustard Seed
• The Seed Growing Secretly
• The Tares
• The True Vine
• The Good Shepherd, Psalm 23, and Isaiah 40
• The Leaven Hidden in a Lump of Dough
• Birds of the air, flowers of the field - Sermon on the Mount
• Fig tree
• Fish caught in a net
• Sending rain on the just and unjust, Isaiah 55, etc.

When people lose touch with the world created by the Word, they fail to see the connection in the Word of God.

The Good Shepherd loses some meaning when the members do not know about sheep, except from a petting zoo.

Sow abundantly, from Paul, must be alien to most people. When I buy seed by the pound, they say, "Why so much?" I had our pool area in Phoenix covered in zinnias, the desert rose, because I found a large, inexpensive supply of them. I remember old Precious sitting in the zinnias, watching us swim. Shelties are shepherding dogs that shepherd their owners whether asked to or not.

When I planted pounds of edible pod peas, we had enough and to spare - and even far too much. We ate peas. Our rabbits ate pea vines. Our friends came over to harvest peas. I cut dragon's talons (end of the vines) for a Hong Kong couple. "Are you sure? Do you know how valuable these are in Hong Kong?" They were a bit shy and embarrassed over getting so much - and the pea vines thrived on the harvesting and cutting.

The pod people have replaced faith with human reason.
Luther was a gardener.