In God'S Awesome Creation

Faith Armitage

Description

Seeing God in your busy life is sometimes hard to do. In my job, I primarily worked outside with nature, on a hands-on farm museum. People reacted in various ways, sometimes surprising and sometimes profound. For me, it was hard not to see God. In Gods Awesome Creation is about some of my adventures, my skills, and my knowledge, along with Bible verses and how it impacted me. I put a Try It at the end. You get to try some of the things I got to do. While you are reading, please pray for yourself or others who are involved in that kind of situation. Some of the moments were funny, some were awesome, and some grabbed you by the socks and brought you up straight. They pointed right at you, and you couldn't help but see you needed to think things out.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Inspiring Voices
• Date de parution: 27 mars 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781462409273
• Langue: English

Extrait

In God’s Awesome Creation
FAITH ARMITAGE


Copyright © 2014 Faith Armitage.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
Inspiring Voices books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:
 
Inspiring Voices
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
 
Scripture from New Revised Standard Version Life Application Bible World Bible Publishers, Inc., 1989 Copyright by Faith Armitage, 2011
 
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0926-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0927-3 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014904718
 
Inspiring Voices rev. date: 03/21/2014

Contents
Morning Comes
Gooster
Sweetie Pie
Babies Swim?
Baa
Which Came F irst?
Henry
Remarkable Feathers
I Remember When
Sleep Tight
God With Us
Waste Not Want Not
Life’s Patterns
Flaxen Fiber
You Want Me To Do What?
Ugly/Useful/Beautiful
Look Out–Tree On Right
Fly Away Home
Yummy–Bees
Smells Wonderful
Everything But The Squeal
He Got Them
Time For Fun
It’s A What?
Mr. Mom
What’s Your Job?
Soil Or Dirt Or Clay
Snags
Your Roots
Sun Today, Storm Tomorrow
Seed Germs Are Good
Everyone One Step Back
Man Made Verses Nature Made
Do Not Disturb: Resting
Smoked – Salted
Dried–Pickled–Rooted
Well Preserved
Fat? Soap?
Can You Se e It?
Hand–Made Fun
Slithery Snakes
Stubborn
Visible Or Not
Natures’ Color
Kids– The Human Kind
Building For The Future
About the Author

 
 
F or more than thirty years I lived a double life. By day, I dressed in a long skirt, fichu, and bonnet, and worked on an eighteenth century living farm museum. By night I wore sweats or shorts and sneakers. Of course it came across to the public as a somewhat idyllic life as long as they could peek and not depend upon that kind of situation to survive. You couldn’t pay me enough to actually live like that. I do enjoy spinning as long as I don’t have to make all my clothes in that manner. I enjoyed making a rye straw hat, but it took 75 hours of painstaking labor. Thankfully, today we don’t have to use what we grow for survival; however I still appreciate my shower and modern convenie nces.
The farm was always a place where I could more easily see God. I found myself coming onto the farm in the morning and pausing to look around and see what was happening, whatever the weather. The farm had a different feeling when it was stormy, cold, hot, or sunny. Time slowed down and the real world and its’ many problems receded. I knew God was there. Somehow for me it has always been easier to find God outside in his creation. Farm life was hard, but close to nature and God. He is seen not only in the scenery, but in the animals, plants and insects and people. If I was stressed that morning, I could relax and pause to thank God and ask for his presence. At the end of a busy day I could say I saw God today when.  . . .
These are some stories and thoughts about my adventure and how I grew, matured and experienced God. I often prayed when I thought of a person who needed prayer or when I saw a situation which brought to mind a friend or family member. I would suggest that you pray too as you read through my adventures and your thoughts bring someone to your mind

Morning Comes
E ach day begins with the rooster. Of course they crow morning, noon and night but that is one of the first things you will hear in the morning, a rooster crowing. Psalm 118: 24 says; “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” I love to start the day with this verse no matter what the weather. It just makes me feel good. We are ready to begin. Let’s go down on the farm.

Gooster
G ooster was born on the farm. His parents were rather ditsy. They laid eggs and sat on them for a while but to hatch a goose out required four weeks. In all the time we had these geese, I remember them sitting the required time only once. When they deserted the eggs, we put them under a chicken who was broody, ready to sit on eggs.
Of course a goose egg is much larger than a chicken egg so the hen was only able to hatch out one egg. Each egg must be turned several times a day so that the entire egg is kept at the right temperature at all times. A small chicken turning a large goose egg several times a day takes a considerable amount of strength and pati ence.
She hatched Gooster. We always put the baby bird in a cage with Mom after they were born, so that predators couldn’t bother them. Gooster grew apace. Soon he was too large to fit in the small cage so we moved them to a larger ground pen. Now everyone could see him. He still fit under Mom chicken for warmth and protection, but it was a sacrifice on her part to cover him. Of course that made no difference to her. Gooster was her c hild.
She began to teach him to scratch and eat. Again it was difficult because geese have webbed feet for swimming and their bills are made for scooping, not pecking. She was undaunted. She trained him well.
Now, what has been happening with the ditsy geese? Well they didn’t notice much at first but when we put Gooster in the ground pen, they found him. They said to each other, “That is not a chicken but a goose like us.” So they watched while Mom chicken trained him.
As he grew he became too large for the pen on the ground and he had grown some adult feathers, so during the day we let Mom chicken and Gooster out. He still hung with her and she still raised him as she knew how. At night they still had to go in the cage to be safe but the arrangement worked well. Soon the biological parents became more and more p ushy.
One day it was time. Gooster knew he was a goose and said good-bye to Mom chicken and off he went with his biological parents. Mom chicken had done her job. The next year it became time for the female goose to lay eggs again. The three geese had hung around together for the year but geese mate for life. So when it was time to lay eggs, Gooster had to leave them for a w hile.
Where was he to go? Well he went back to Mom chicken who by now had another family of chickens. He protected those chickens like he was the dad. And he protected Mom chicken. After the egg hatching season, back he went to the geese parents. For as long as we had him he followed this pattern. Finally someone took Gooster home and introduced him to other geese so that he could find a mate as well. There was a happy ending for all.
Reflection : God is like that. He never gives up on us. He is always with us. We might feel uncomfortable or leave because we are not exactly like him or we do something wrong or sin. We are free to come back to him. When we ask for his forgiveness and really mean it, he will forgive. Of course it is more difficult for us to forgive ourselves sometimes. We are free to explore our world as well. God will be with us while we do. We can do that as long as we know God is there. In Matthew 10: 29-31 it says: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than sparrows.” Gooster was left alone by his parents, and he eventually left the farm. We leave places or people, or people leave us but we are so valuable to God that He sent his only Son to die for us. Nothing we do can shake God’s love for each of us. He will not leave us. He has promised to be with us and he will not break that pro mise.
 

 
Try it! Make or buy a goose quill pen. A quill pen is a writing instrument made from a large bird’s wing feather. Find a can of sand and put in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Take the sand out of the oven and stick the feathers in it. Keep them there until the sand cools. Now the feather is ready to cut. Use a sharp knife and shape like a pen. Learn calligraphy or just write plainly. Find an invitation or announcement or poem or something you want to create which is a little fancy. Purchase ink or make your own. Use the quill pen and ink to make the invitation or what you wish to cr eate.

Sweetie Pie
O ur pigs live outside in a special pig house. The house was built with the oak trees which the gypsy moth killed, so that the wood wouldn’t go to w aste.
Sweetie Pie was one of them. She weighed close to 1000 pounds. The building was built to be pig friendly. She could walk underneath the building and get somewhat cooler. Pigs are also messy eaters, so there are sometimes rats. Because the building is off the ground, only one or two rats get in at a time. Sweetie Pie is capable of killin g it.
A person can sweat when it gets hot. That puts moisture on your skin which in turn evaporates and helps you to cool. Since pigs have no sweat glands, they have trouble cooling down during the hot hours especially during the