Dear Reader:

A favorite prayer at Hampton Plantation uttered by the workers there (that Archibald Rutledge would recall with great pleasure) was: “O Lord, prop me up in all my leaning places!”

Yesterday I was re-reading chapters from Archibald Rutledge’s book: Home by the River. It is still my favorite of all his writings and it really was like going home again to relish and embellish a life that no longer exists for us in this modern age… in its beautiful simplicity.

The older I get…the more “leaning places” seem to pop up on me… which, then,  require some more propping up!

And speaking of propping up…a wonderful, secret angel left sunflowers on my porch yesterday…I found them on the white bench when I returned from running some morning errands -no name or calling card. Whoever you are lovely angel…thank you…I LOVE sunflowers!

They made me so happy...I added some greenery and “propped” their long stems up the best I could… finally just deciding to let them lean in whichever direction they chose.

One day Archibald was talking to one of his sharecroppers and the sharecropper interrupted Archibald to tell him he needed to leave right then because it was time to go to church…only he didn’t say he was going to church…instead he  eloquently said: “Now I must go light my candle at His fire.” 

The beauty of words…

Last week Eva Cate and I were watching the beginning of  the original Jurrassic Park movie … a scene from the movie showed the skeleton of a dinosaur in a museum.

Suddenly Eva Cate exclaimed: “I know what that is…it is the skeletal system of a dinosaur!”  

I turned around and gave Eva Cate a curious look…”How did you know that Eva Cate?” (I was expecting her to tell me from a book a teacher had read or from a trip to a museum but I wasn’t expecting the answer she gave me.)

“God told me” she said nonchalantly and then left to play with her doll house.

Mandy hadn’t left yet and I asked her about the remark. She said lately every time Eva Cate has surprised them with some kind of trivia remark that one just didn’t expect to come out of a five year old’s mouth…(and they asked about it)…she gave the same answer: “God told me.”

Suddenly the combination of sunflowers and conversations with God reminded me of a sweet little story I once told at Vacation Bible School when I was still attending Summerville Presbyterian Church.

The title was something like “The Church of Sunflowers”

There once was a little girl ( I think her name was Nellie…either way we will go with that name) named Nellie who was very curious about God and church.

One day she asked her mother why they only went to church on one day of the week….distracted her mother said that one day was enough…God was very busy running the universe the other days.

Nellie, however, looked at the situation differently. She wondered if God wasn’t lonely the other six days while everybody else was working and doing other things.

So she asked her daddy for some wood so she could build a church in the back yard….puzzled her daddy shook his head and said that it wasn’t necessary to build another church…the town had a perfectly good one already.

Nellie continued to worry about the situation, however, and finally came up with an idea she knew her mother would accept.

She asked her mother if she could have some seeds to plant a garden for herself in the far corner of the back yard. Her mother was thrilled she was off this church “kick” and gave her morning glory seeds and sunflower seeds.

Nellie built a little low wattle fence out of sticks to surround her plot of land and placed the morning glory seeds around it so soon they would cover the little fence. Then inside the fence she planted sunflower seeds so that one day the tall sunflowers would stand like post guards to hide the inner sanctuary from prying eyes.

Nellie left one entrance in the back of the fence  and as soon as the morning glories and sunflowers grew tall enough to hide the center of the plot she took pine needles and covered the circle…lastly plopping a chair in the middle.

Now she was hidden from the outside world and could hold church with God every day of the week. Her parents were just glad she had found something to do to keep occupied.

Nellie talked to God and asked Him if he was lonely sometimes because she was. Then she would sing songs and read stories from her Children’s Bible Story Book.

One day a bright light began to shine into the clearing where Nellie sat…suddenly the sunflowers began to lean forward and backward…the morning glory vines started climbing up invisible spiral steps.

“Is that you God?” Nellie whispered. “Yes” came the gentle response. “I’m so glad You are here” clapped Nellie as she heard God say “I was always here even though you couldn’t see me.”

From that time on Nellie and God talked about flowers, animals, Jesus and the Holy Spirit…all things found in the universe.

Sometimes at the supper table when she shared some of her new discoveries to her surprised parents, they too, asked her where she got her information. ( Like Eva Cate…she replied “God told me.“)

One day Nellie’s mother decided to spy on her while she was in her garden…From the other side of the fence she could hear Nellie talking to God and singing songs by composers like Beethoven…something strange was going on.

When she told her husband about Nellie’s church in the garden and what she heard….her husband assured her that “this, too, would pass” because Fall was coming and the sunflowers and morning glories would soon die out. Then her church would be gone.

The day did arrive when all the flowers were gone and the fence was no more…but Nellie didn’t despair..she knew the secret…the sunflower church was alive in her heart where she knew it would bloom forever.

………………………….

So until tomorrow…Let us never forget that God resides in His Home in our hearts…church is just a heart-beat away.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

• Look at this beautiful painting by Joan Turner! Joan…when I was having lunch at the tea room with Jo and Colby…I asked Colby to pass me the salt and pepper and they were in the shape of (china) cats that looked very close to your feline sugar bowl!

Kaitlyn and her good-looking family at Vail….isn’t it beautiful…looks like a scene out of an animated Disney movie.

*** Thank everyone for all the lovely comments yesterday…I felt like it was my birthday instead of a blog anniversary…you made me feel needed and special…I loved it!