We have had so much rain that I lost track of the totals. A few Little Joe Pye Weed and Fever Few came in the mail, so I planted them just before another storm arrived.
The rain made it possible to distribute our roses this year for Mother's Day. The two Easy Does It rose bushes held 25 buds each on Saturday, so I did not need to buy extra from Walmart.
I delivered to every home in our cul-de-sac, using a drink cup and water for each rose. The mother of four daughters received a bouquet of four, with one stem loaded with additional buds.
Most people were not up at 7 AM, but one woman waited in the driveway with her daughter for hers. She said, "For me?" I gave her the rose and said, "Happy Mother's Day." She beamed and gave me a hug.
Sassy drove with me for additional deliveries. One went to a police officer's wife. The others went to Pat and her new neighbor. The neighbor was out with her rescue dog. Pat and her husband John always look for Sassy. She kisses their hands each time, and they love that. Pat told me an interesting story.
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| Easy Does It is in the middle. |
The Hidden Path
"Did you know about the path? No? Our neighbors just moved in and the father started digging between the sidewalk and the street. Did you see that? You will never guess what was under that thick layer of mud and grass - a brick path to the mailbox and the street. We have been here for years and never suspected that. Now all the debris is dug away and they can walk to their mailbox on that brick path. How about that?"Later that day, Pat's story stuck me as the perfect analogy for the almost complete loss of Justification by Faith. No article of faith is plainer in the Bible, Luther's Sermons, or the Book of Concord. But two centuries of Pietism, Calvinism, and Rationalism have covered the Biblical doctrine with enough mud and debris to hide it almost completely under a layer of growth. All the books and essays - with a few exceptions - have added to that accumulation. These contributions to the opaque layer came from the "conservative" Synodical Conference and later from the modernists who aped the rationalism of Europeans.
Someone could easily conclude from the 60 essays in the WELS Essay File that Justification by Faith does not exist. The opponents do not identify their nemesis, or attack it, lest people start digging for the truth.
