Pigs and Wild Boars; Worms and Butterflies

Not long ago I read an article about Texas’s efforts to eradicate, or at least reduce, the wild boar population. It’d gotten way out of hand, and regular hunter-led efforts had not worked. Primarily, hogs root and destroy the landscape. Their rooting also creates hazards to people and other animals. Hogs are also not native to Texas.

Here in Georgia, I’m told many of the wild hogs were at one time domesticated pigs that got loose. Once a pig gets back into its nature environment, it grows its tusk back, and returns to its viral, wild nature.

“We have found tht hog rings are usually the only thing that will stop a hog from rooting,” wrote Linn in a post on the Homesteading Today forum.

A ring in the snout prevents rooting. It restrains the natural inclinations of a pig. Remove the ring. . . Yup! It roots. A pig is just a better-behaved wild thing.

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman, 1:24-32)

There are a type of worm that grows on a leaf, surrounded by a crusty shell. Eventually, it hatches and begins to eat the leaf to which it was attached. It eats. It eats. It eats. Once the leaf is nearly destroyed, it gets sleepy, gathers about it a slimy covering, and rests for a while. The worm changes. It breaks through its cocoon, eats it, and spreads its gorgeous wings, pumps them up, and flies away. It is now a beautiful butterfly.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again^bhe cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Gospel of John 3:3-8)

Numbers-6-24-26 - 1 — Numbers-6-24-26 – 1

Notes from Garden Times

It is the world in which we live that slowly dies. We live and we live on beyond all we now see, as beautiful or corrupt as it may be. And yet there are these things I hold dear. Things like mugs and items procured for their looks or comfort or utility, that I don’t want to part with as the world dies. These I hold as if holding on I may prevent the death of the known as I move toward an unknown no matter how wonderful and beautiful it may be beyond this day.

Destroyed section of Jerusalem's Old City (c) Wil Robinson 1986 — Destroyed section of Jerusalem’s Old City
(c) Wil Robinson 1986

Relics of a world that is for me passing away. For I am just passing through on my way to another world another place beyond time and space. Yet here I am wandering as a stranger in this world, in this time, in this piece of space. I wait.

While this is not my home, as Apostle Paul said, I am content in all situations as I await my destiny, my life in another Home, which is a Heavenly Home with Messiah YeshuaJesus. I wait for You, L-RD.

In the Garden, it is like Ham Radio and not always talking but listening, and listening carefully. Listening with openness and intent to the Words Spirit speaks to my heart.

O how I love Thee, L-RD!

Avinu Malkeinu

Our Father; Our King!

Contemplation

On the glorious splendor of your majesty,

and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

(Ps 145:7)

The word for which I’m looking is Contemplation. Yesterday evening, on the way to Cutter’s, a local lounge, to listen to a jazz ensemble, I struggled with a word that is more acceptable than meditate and yet more adequately describes what I’ve come to refer to as my Garden Times. Earlier in the day I’d sat on the deck staring at the trees in the woods. I thought that if I were to awaken with no knowledge of G-D, I’d look at the trees and they would point to Him. Apostle Paul said as much.

This “thinking” on the deck is more than mere thought, however. But meditating is a word with connotations of emptying oneself and opening oneself up to some Universe Power. Meditating is occasionally referred to as letting go of one’s “monkey mind” and of “becoming one with the Universe.” Neither is my intent, nor is simply thinking.

Perhaps this deep thought might be called prayer in a Christian Church. Yet prayer is so ambiguous. It can mean so many different things. Reading a Psalm is considered prayer to a Jewish man praying Psalm 145 in the morning. Then there are the “Prayers of the People” in an Episcopal and a Roman Catholic Church service in which the priest reads a list of items and the congregation speaks a liturgical response after each item on the list. Prayer is often just humans speaking to G-D as children recite the Pledge of Allegiance at school.

Neither meditation nor prayer do justice to experiencing G-D’s presence in contemplation. That’s the best word for my Garden Times. “On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works, I will contemplate.” I will contemplate the glorious splendor of G-D’s majesty. I will contemplate G-D’s wondrous works. I will hear G-D’s response and prompting and perhaps catch a glimpse of Him. I shall be as the women who sought to but touch the hem of Yeshua’s garment. I will, like Job, hear G-d say He will ask a question and require my response. I might hear G-D say something to which I might, like Abraham, respond boldly with “don’t be angry, but might Your servant ask just one thing more?” I want to cry aloud, as King David:

We have thought on your steadfast love, O G-d,

in the midst of your temple.

As your name, O G-d,

so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.

Your right hand is filled with righteousness.

Let Mount Zion be glad!

Let the daughters of Judah rejoice

because of your judgments!

(Psalm 48:9, 10, 11)