Flora and fauna blessed by God

Flora and fauna blessed by God

I finished my last blog talking about landscaping the back yard, which is a barren desert. Let’s watch God turn it into a lush green rock garden dotted with colorful flowers!! I even found a Bible verse about it. Deuteronomy 7:12-15 says that God will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground (grain/bread, wine/grapes, oil/olive trees), the increase of your herd and young of your flock. It ends with “And the Lord will remove from you all sickness; He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt.”
Well, God has already caused my plants to bloom back here. I even went online to Lowe’s to look up care for the Crown of thorn plants and it said that they are good for rock gardens!! Wow, I’ll have to get more of those!! The Mexican petunias reproduce readily, also.
As for wildlife (herds and flocks), we have lots of lizards here, and they are reproducing. I see many 2 inch babies scurrying around. I hear the frogs croaking at night. Butterflies and dragonflies visit regularly. In fact, I caught a picture of one in my purple lantana. It was interesting because it had decorative black wings with white dots, like a butterfly, but an elongated black body, like a dragonfly. Whatever it is, it is welcome here. Remember that dragonflies represent heavenly beings to me (from the story Waterbugs and Dragonflies, cited in a previous blog). Here’s the Bible verse that references heavenly beings, Psalm 19:11 – “For he will give his angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.” Does it sound familiar? It is part of the verses that Satan quoted to Jesus during his forty days of temptation when he asked him to throw himself down from the mountain so God could miraculously save him. The psalm has healing verses too. “He …delivers you from the deadly pestilence…under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark.” Here is a reference to Paul’s armor of God, the shield of faith, which I wrote about previously (Ephesians 6:10-17). Speaking of wings, we do have doves, mocking birds and seagulls that visit my yard. And V-shaped flocks of geese fly over, honking, not more than 10 feet above our house. Evidently we live in a centuries-old migration route! Geese remind me of support groups because of the V-formation. The first goose sets up a current that makes it physically less strenuous for the other geese. When the first goose gets tired, it falls back and another one takes the lead. I have also heard that if one goose gets sick and has to land, a second goose always lands with it and stays till it is able to fly with the flock again. So every time God sends a flock of geese over my house, he is reminding me of my support group and my healers. Once while I was sitting on my bench, God sent a huge white egret soaring high overhead. I interpreted that as a reference to the healing scriptures in Psalm 103:1-5. Briefly, it says, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul...and forget none of his benefits…who heals ALL your diseases…who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.” I just substitute the word ‘egret’ for ‘eagle’ and there I am, in the Bible again!!! God is talking about ME and my healing!! Plenty of bees visit the lantana, salvia and bogenvilla blossoms in the garden, and there is a healing reference for them also. Proverbs 16:24 says “Pleasant words are a honey comb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” The bees have never attacked me or Al when we work around them, and AL is allergic to their sting. There is a Bible verse for this, too. Luke 10:19 says “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions…and nothing shall injure you.” Just substitute ‘bees’ for ‘serpents and scorpions’. There is also a story about Paul being bitten by a serpent and not being injured in Acts 28:2-6. We do have a snake living in the Ferngully part of my garden but he is not poisonous, not to be feared. He is a black snake, the good kind to have around because he eats small animals and large bugs! He comes out during the day to sun himself on the rocks, but runs back into his miniature forest home when we come out.

The pictures show a green frog with suckered feet on our garage, the black and white winged dragonfly in the middle of the lantana, and sculptured animals that I put in the garden when I first started it (they’re so easy to take care of - lol!).