Today's Devotional
As temperatures warm up and we pass our official average last frost date here in North Texas, I have been itching to get outside and into the garden – planting seeds to grow with the kids and planting native wildflowers and prairie grasses as part of my passion for restoring the native Blackland Prairie ecosystem in our backyard.
I am an amateur gardener, so I am learning by trial and error. For example, I got a packet of bluebonnet seeds this past Christmas, and even though I planted them right away, none of them germinated.
With spring officially here, I recently stopped by a local nursery, Shades of Green, to peruse their plants. And wouldn’t you know it, they had buckets of bluebonnets! I left with two gallon-sized containers.
Besides being the state flower of Texas and attracting pollinators, bluebonnets are nitrogen-fixing plants, enriching the soil they’re growing in and bringing much-needed nutrients back to the soil.
My hope is that these new transplants will bear seeds and over time, I’ll be able to enjoy more and more bluebonnets each spring.
So, I dug a spot for my new plant babies and put them in the ground – of course getting dirt beneath my fingernails.
The next day, I had the honor of officiating the funeral and graveside service for The Honorable Tom James.
The celebration of life included inspiring stories of a life-well lived, a man beloved by his friends and family, a man who enriched the lives of those around him, a man who served others and put them first, a man who led people to Christ with his words, actions and love.
And then, as I drove out to the graveside, the side of the road was blanketed in wildflowers – Indian blanket, prairie verbena, and of course, bluebonnets.
As a pastor, I find that some of the most powerful moments of ministry happen at funerals – as we enter into the liminal space between grief and celebration and reflect on the mystery of life, death and resurrection. For me, the most powerful moment occurred as I paused the liturgy to grab a handful of dirt to cast on the coffin. I got dirt beneath my fingernails again to lay to rest a beloved child of God who bore much good fruit over his life. And Jesus’ words from the Gospel of John struck me in a new way.
As we grow towards the warmth of the risen Christ this Easter season, let’s not forget how we got here – let’s remember the lives of those who planted seeds of faith in our lives. Let’s remember the life-giving sacrifice of Jesus, whose humility and love show us how to serve and liberate us. Let’s spread seeds of faith, hope and love with the careless abandon of the sowers in Jesus’ parables. Let’s give our own lives to enrich the soil around us – bringing life to the whole ecosystem.
And when the time comes, when we return to the earth we are made from, we’ll be returning to the grace that has always held us, the grace that is the ground of our being.
Together, in our living and our dying, let us bear good fruit.
— Rev. Patrick Hoffman, First UMC Celina, NTC
phoffman@celinafumc.org
