Ants and Aphids on Sunflowers--Symbiotic Relationship

 A couple weeks ago, Jonathan and I were taking a walk down our driveway when we noticed ants all over most of the sunflowers on a plant by the driveway's edge. 

 

I had never seen sunflowers covered with ants before, so of course, we took a closer look to see if we could figure out what was going on. Well, it didn't take long for me to discover that the flowers that were crawling with ants were also thick with aphids!

 

When I looked up aphids and ants on sunflowers, I discovered that "Aphids are attracted to sunflowers because they feed on the plant's sap... The presence of aphids also attracts ants, which protect the aphids in exchange for the honeydew they produce, further encouraging aphid infestations on sunflowers."

Aphids and ants have a symbiotic relationship, not just on sunflowers but on many other plants as well. Ants keep aphid predators like ladybugs or lacewings away while feeding on the honeydew nectar the aphids produce, turning it into honey of their own. 

 

 It's a picture, I thought, although imperfect, of marriage, and also of the family of God--how we are each mutually dependent on each other under God.  

 

May each of us do our job well--providing honeydew or honey to others around us, especially our own spouse and family. 

 

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/insects/controlling-aphids-and-ants.htm

Danny Pallbearer at Beaver's Funeral--Related through Christ

Our church sanctuary had never looked this pretty to us before. 

When we arrived for our friend  Beaver's wake Saturday evening, eight different star quilts or blankets hung on wires stretched across the front church windows.

 I'd always wondered what those wires were for; now I know!

And so do you. 

The huge mum plant with butterflies planted in it was a planter we bought at Sams Club in Sioux Falls. I couldn't resist. It was for Beaver's memory--a flower that would last long past the funeral.

Beaver--the lady who had been paralyzed on one side a few years ago from a couple strokes, and who struggled to talk and to push her wheelchair wheel along with just one hand.

"Not many mighty, not many noble are called...but God has chosen the foolish things, and the weak..."

I believe He chose our dear friend Beaver.

 

Her guardian chose Danny, who had helped wheel Beaver to church different times over the last year, to be one of the pall bearers. Another relative pinned the pall bearer pins on the appropriate sleeves.

 

Each pall bearer was presented with one of the star quilts or blankets. 

After everyone had left the church after the final viewing after the funeral service, the casket is carried out.

We followed the procession ten miles back Little White River Road to St. Philip Episcopal Cemetery, a small native cemetery--interrupted at one point by cows and calves crossing the road!

One set of cow and calf, with the calf almost as big as its mama--way past time for weaning, in my opinion! 

"All of the pall bearers are related to Beaver," the guardian had said as they were pinning the ribbons. We sat quietly in a bit of shock.

Had she forgotten that our Danny was totally unrelated and white?

It meant so much to us that they treated us like part of the family. After all, in Christ, we truly were part of Beaver's family. 

There Danny went, along with five native men, carrying Beaver to her final resting place.

"The colors are beautiful," I whispered to Beaver's sister. 

"They were her colors," she choked, starting to cry.

I put my arm around her and she buried her face in my shoulder. 

Pastor Ambrose read the committal and the prayer and then stooped carefully to pick up the first handful of dirt to throw in over the casket after the pall bearers had lowered the casket by straps into the grave. 

The pall bearers then shoveled the dirt to fill in the grave. Jonathan stepped up to help when they tired and some had to stop to smoke. 

Some excitement showed up in the shape of a horse that came to investigate who had trespassed on his territory! A big man in a bigger cowboy hat and a brave native lady in a long, teal skirt both helped chase the horse back to a safe distance where it would not escape through the open cattle gate that had been opened to let the vehicles through to the cemetery. 

Someone took this picture of the scene. Right in the middle you see a little bench where another native Christian lady, a pastor in Pierre, and her husband were sitting with me. I asked for her testimony and was entranced with her own story of grace--of God meeting her right while she was high on drugs and listening to her cry for help.

She had been possessed of a sudden fear of what would happen to her if she died.

Where would she go?

"God, help me!" she cried out in her heart. And He did.

Immediately. 

She was not high anymore. 

The next day Bible College students led her through the steps to salvation and she prayed the sinner's prayer, waking up  the next morning to noticing how beautiful the world around her was. 

Everything is beautiful when God redeems!

The flowers adorning Beaver's grave were planted there by little children.

Beaver had become like a little child--and I believe she entered the kingdom of heaven. 

We were left to stand at her grave, place flowers, and say goodbye--

moving once again through the herd of cattle,

by the rippling waters of Little White River,

past Ghost Face Drive,

and home. 

Bears, Blue Gentians, and Blueberries

 About a week ago in Colorado mountains, our daughter Carrie bagged the biggest bear she's ever gotten.

 

  It must be her third or fourth bear. 

A few weeks ago when Jonathan and I were picking ripe red currants while the children hiked on our camping trip, I kept a bit of an eye and an ear out for bears. 

Thankfully we never saw one. But that had been such a delectable afternoon in the mountains in Wyoming.

Branches of bright red currants overhung the rocks and swooped down for us hungry humans who had currant jam in mind. 

We didn't see any bear that day, though we did see moose. 

And the brightest blue gentians smiled at us in several spots.  I just hadn't gotten around to posting these pictures yet.  

At home, Crystal made this blueberry recipe  which the Colorado bears would have loved, but we humans got instead.  

Peace for the Restless

 This has been a bit of a restless week--in the wake of several deaths (including Kirk's martyrdom) and news of a childhood friend who was fighting for her life in no other than our own Rapid City hospital. 

Jonathan managed to come home early from work and grab paperwork to do while we drove partway to Rapid City to see my old friend who actually lives now in Wyoming. After several inches of wonderful rain in the last week and a half, the scenery was beautiful near the Badlands. 

In Sioux Falls Tuesday where I went for my immunotherapy infusion, I had bought a jumbo bouquet of flowers at Sam's Club for the funeral of our friend Beaver, but I stole several stems from it to make a bouquet for my friend in Rapid City. Jonathan took this photo in front of a mural at the hospital--the same one where I'd had my own surgery just a couple months ago. 

 

 

 My friend was in so much pain it was difficult to visit, but when she saw my autoharp, she insisted we sing, and we did, while she hummed along with the same beautiful voice I remember her having as a teenager. I don't know what we would do if we didn't have music, and God's Word, and prayer in our dark hours. 

We got to meet a couple of her family and Jonathan prayed before we left. And then we rushed to get a few things at Menards, and Jonathan pushed the limits to get home in exactly two hours. 

We crashed in bed and went to sleep almost immediately, unlike tonight after a restless day. I wondered what kind of night my friend spent--but thankfully after surgery today she was doing better. 

It's the greatest joy of our lives to help or cheer somebody. There are so many ways to do that if you really want to. Last week Jonathan got called in for the third time to donate blood, and this time Danny donated for the first time. They came home sporting blue tape over the holes poked in their veins. 

Lord, when uncertainties and pain make our days and nights and lives and ways

restless, may we find our rest in You. May we be willing to sit down a while with those who are suffering or in any kind of pain.

When our peace is shattered with the gun shots that silence the most effective voices for truth in our day, may we find our peace in You. 

When slander is crushing the hearts of people we love, may we remember that You are the God of truth. 

And as we prepare for a wake tomorrow and then a funeral, may we remember that this world is not our home; we are just passing through.

God alone is Peace for the restless, Love for the lonely, and a Home for every weary heart. 

Alligator and Charlie Kirk for Sunday Dinner

Who would have believed that we'd be eating alligator for Sunday dinner in South Dakota in September?

Well, that is exactly what we did yesterday. Our friend Lila had enjoyed company apparently from down south who brought with them some breaded alligator meat from Louisiana! That stole the show for Sunday dinner. Our cucumber salad, fresh melon from the garden, and even squash and venison paled in comparison to alligator meat from Louisiana! (If you promise not to tell, I even ate one small piece myself!) 

And who would have believed that we would be watching a martyr's memorial service that lasted about five and a half hours? But that is exactly what our family did yesterday, along with millions, perhaps a billion others in the world. 

I wrote down a few of the quotes that struck me. One of the first speakers (was it Tyler Streiff?) talked about how Charlie's courage came from the first Commandment, how courage was simply deciding--

and living with truth and courage which requires a "yes."

Ben Carson reminded us of John 12:24, in memory of Charlie who was murdered at 12:24, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit."

Tucker Carlson remembered the religious people in Jesus' time who sat around eating hummus and discussing what to do with this Man they hated who told the truth. How to fix that? "Let's just kill Him!" they decided. That fixed it, right? "Any attempt to extinguish the light causes it to burn brighter."

White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said, "The day Charlie died the angels wept, but their tears became the fire in our souls."

"You thought you had killed Charlie Kirk? You just made Charlie Kirk immortal! Even in South Korea, students and young people are chanting, "We are Charlie Kirk!"

"You have nothing but bitterness; we have beauty."

Marco Rubio told us that nearly every country from Australia to Canada was extending condolences. The entire Cabinet was there at the memorial service. 

Susie Wyles, Trump's campaign manager and now Chief of Staff said, "If you knew Charlie, you were lifted by his convictions."

Jack Posobeic, a TPUSA commentator said, "Charlie's was not just a murder, but a sacrifice--a gift."

Pete Hegseth shared how Charlie would fear God and fear no man. "There is a God," Charlie would say, "and it's not us." 

"We needed a lot more God," Pete said. "Charlie waged war not with a weapon but with a tent, a microphone, his mind, and the truth. And the gates of hell did not prevail against him."

And as Charlie Kirk embodied,

"We need to say what we mean without saying it mean."

Donald Trump Jr., after talking about the first martyr in the New Testament, assured us, "While a cowardly assassin crawled on his stomach to end Charlie's life, I'll bet Charlie saw Jesus standing to his feet."

"When people disagree with us, we don't silence them, intimidate them, scream at their children at Disney. We win with courage, truth, and conversation."

Our vice-President reminded us, "It's better to face a gunman than live your life afraid to speak the truth."

Vance also admitted that he'd spoken more about his faith in Christ in the last 13 days since Charlie's death than he did in his entire life or career. He quoted Jesus promising that in the world we will have tribulation, but to take heart because He has overcome.

"Charlie took heart," Vance said, "and we must also." 

"Never before," Charlie's wife Erika said, "have I gotten so much comfort from the Lord's prayer, 'Thy will be done.'"

And as she described going to the hospital to see her husband's murdered body, she said the one comfort, if it could be called that, was that his death was instant. 

No pain.

"He blinked," she said, "and saw His Savior in paradise."

"While Charlie died too early, he was ready to die. 

He died with incomplete work but not with unfinished business."

"My husband, Charlie--he wanted to save young men like the one who murdered him. Campus events will continue."

"Every time you make a decision," she quoted from Kirk's journal, "it puts a mark on your soul. Faith is a habit; the more you live it, the more it grows. The devil will fight, but you must choose to mark your soul toward God."

Stones--Thrown, Skipped, or Engraved?

Early one morning while our family was camping two weeks ago, Jonathan caught Danny skipping stones across the lake.

 

He got several photos of it, with one of the other boys on the paddle board far away, one stone at a time skipping and creating ripples in the placid lake waters.  

Throwing flat stones in such a way that they "skip" across the water is a fun feat--much less dangerous than throwing stones of judgment, slander, bitterness, or hatred that splash grotesquely in what used to be quiet water.

Throwing stones seems to be a pretty popular thing to do nowadays 

across the aisles

across the board

across the media

across families and marriages

and across our world.

But I am reminded often of Jesus, who when the woman caught in adultery was brought to him (minus the man who was also obviously involved in the act) stooped to write in the dust. And when He straightened up, He simply said, "He who is without sin among you cast the first stone at her."

I think of how, when we have turned to Christ and trusted Him as Savior, and how if we sin we turn immediately to Him and get back on the right track, He will say to us as He did to that trembling woman and the palsied man, "Your sins are forgiven. Go, and sin no more."

Christ is always about sending people off with forgiveness and grace and inspiration and the power to do the right thing next time. 

Instead of throwing stones at us, He has engraved our name on His hands, just like names are engraved in the stones up in White River Cemetery. He's in the business, not of skipping stones, or throwing stones, but as it were, engraving stones--

with our names,

forever etched upon His hands.