{"id":1970,"date":"2012-04-06T10:53:34","date_gmt":"2012-04-06T16:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/?p=1970"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:07","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:07","slug":"in-the-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/in-the-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"In The Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

I grew up in a Christian home. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Oh, there weren\u2019t daily\u00a0family devotions and we didn’t all hold hands while reciting grace around the supper \u00a0table. As I remember, grace was optional unless we had company; then it often fell upon me to impress the guests by reciting the Norwegian Table Prayer taught to me by my Aunt Esther.<\/p>\n

“I Jesu navn gar vi til bords a spise, drikke pa ditt ord. Deg, Gud til aere, oss til gavn,<\/em>
\nSa far vi mat i Jesu navn.\u00a0 Amen. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

No, we were not overtly religious but mom did make sure all of her boys went to church every week and was especially proud that her middle son, me, managed to attain 15 years perfect attendance and was recognized by\u00a0the church big wigs for doing so. \u00a0I received a certificate\u00a0 and everything. I know a few times when I was sick but went\u00a0to Sunday School anyway to keep the record intact.<\/p>\n

\"attendance\"<\/p>\n

\"ours

ours were wrapped in purple construction paper<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0Mom also made sure that her boys wouldn’t be totally embarrassed when Easter morning arrived and none of us had put any money in the\u00a0Lenten Coin Containers we’d been issued\u00a0at the beginning of Lent to be filled with spare change for the poor. She always managed to make sure those cans weren\u2019t empty when we marched up front with the rest of our Sunday School class to deposit them on the altar.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Lunds lived with the image of Jesus in our living room \u00a0It was a print of the famous painting by German artist, Heinrich Hofmann, \u201cChrist in Gethsemane.\u201d\u00a0 For years, I didn\u2019t pay much attention to it because, you know, familiarity causes things to disappear into their surroundings. Mom, though, thought so much of it she insisted that it be the background for our first and only family Christmas card photo. \u201cThe Lord and the Lunds wish you a Merry Christmas.\u201d No..it didn\u2019t actually say that but images are important and I\u2019m sure mom wanted all our friends and relatives to know that we weren\u2019t heathens.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"xmas<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"altar\"It was the same painting, on a much smaller scale of course, that graced the altar\u00a0 at First Lutheran. (Still does)<\/p>\n

Sometimes while day dreaming in church..like on Stewardship Sunday..I\u2019d stare at that image and think about the situation that inspired the artist. I\u2019d wonder\u00a0 if Jesus knew the reason he was put on this earth ( To die for \u00a0sinners) why did he beg\u00a0 the old man to be let off the hook; praying so fervently \u00a0to have the cup removed that he sweat drops of blood. Looking at that picture made me see the human side of Jesus; how he \u00a0was understandably afraid of what was expected and soon to\u00a0befall \u00a0him; betrayal, humiliation, torture and a lingering painful death hanging from a cross. I can certainly understand why the idea of being a savior didn\u2019t seem all that appealing when it came time to actually follow through on the deal. \u00a0He did what I would do, ask dad to protect him from injury and pain. Christ\u2019s anxiety was short lived, though. In the same prayer, he soon accepted the responsibility of his existence saying, \u201cNot \u00a0my will but yours be done.\u201d\u00a0 The Gospel writer, Luke, says God then sent down an angel to give his boy the strength to endure the hours ahead.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t help but feel that, had I been there, I probably would have been like the Disciples; asleep in the background while all that was going on and later denying the Master in order to save my own skin. I\u2019m like a lot of us, big on promises..short on proving up.\u00a0 But, he\u00a0didn\u2019t shirk his responsibility, and because of it..\u00a0we\u00a0 have the luxury of being irresponsible and unreliable and yet\u00a0 forgiven. As much as I hate the very thought of pain and suffering, I\u2019m mighty glad that The Father allowed it to happen to his only son. But\u00a0gladder still that in a short three days, the story would have a happy ending.<\/p>\n

\"christ<\/p>\n

Wishing you all a Blessed Easter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up in a Christian home. \u00a0 Oh, there weren\u2019t daily\u00a0family devotions and we didn’t all hold hands while reciting grace around the supper \u00a0table. As I remember, grace was optional unless we had company; then it often fell upon me to impress the guests by reciting the Norwegian Table Prayer taught to me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11725,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970\/revisions\/11725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}