My Friend Rita

This morning I heard a lady on the radio whose name was Rita. It reminded me of Rita that I used to work with. So, when I got to work I sent her a quick e-mail that just said "Hi, I'm thinking of you". She's one of those people who sees the extraordinary in the small everyday life things. Here's part of her reply to me. It encouraged me, I hope it encourages you too. :)

PS-Lloyd and I just harvested our summer garden. Haven't grown one for many years. But I marveled that only months ago we planted "seeds". Small, insignificant, lifeless looking things. Many of them looked the same. We had to keep track where we had put what...

Then as things grew they took on their own unique design and now that they are ready for picking they are beautifully and individually designed and colored. The bonus is we get to eat them but we marveled just to even look at the produce as we dug or picked each one.

Lloyd remembered when he was cutting back our grapevine the teaching from the Gospel of John that Jesus said He was the vine and we are the branches...the fruit doesn't come from us but from the life in the vine. And I thought of "unless the seed falls to the ground and dies it abides alone but if it dies it brings forth much fruit. There has been a lot of life that has come from those seeds that were buried.

And then recently I read of Jesus, that He "emptied Himself" taking the form of a servant. I wondered what it really is like to live "emptied of oneself". I suppose it would look like Jesus :-)

I hope you are enjoying daily the joy of watching God use you in your family and workplace as you live in the vine.