Thank you for joining us! Before we begin our devotional, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight from last week:
In our discussion question last week, we talked about finding our reassurances in God so that we could “keep swimming”! Lily Chili replied:
"The heartbeat of God is that we rest in Him and keep swimming." Beautiful! For me it's gotten easier. But only because I have come to see the futility of alternatives...it feels to me we are in an energy in which there is a tremendous amount of grace but also clarity about what is not serving the highest God/divine will. It feels like less work because it is so clear.
“The futility of alternatives”…love this response, Lily! Lily Chili is a fellow Substack writer and a generous soul, and you can find her writing at Lilychili Sanctuary!
If you want to be featured in next week’s Comment Highlight, all you have to do is post a comment on any of this week’s posts or threads. That’s it!
Now, on with this week’s devotional…
gently I remove the thorn from my sleeve, and the bramble branch falls away. it is worth it I think, the scratches, the thorns; it is worth fighting through the tangle when I hear each blackberry gem make my metal bowl sing.
So, there’s this TV show my husband and I enjoy watching. It’s called Alone. It premiered shortly after we started dating, so there’s a hint of nostalgia for us every time a new season drops.
The conceit of the show is pretty simple. Ten survival experts are dropped off in remote locations, miles from each other. They are given basic but limited survival gear and proper clothing for the environment (often British Columbia, Canada), but no food or water. They are also equipped with cameras so they can document their experience for the show and a satellite phone to contact the show’s team if they want to leave (or for emergencies).
The task? Survive as long as possible, on your own. The last person to tap out wins half a million dollars.
It’s a strangely hypnotic, addictive thing to watch. These people are some of the best of the best, chosen to compete in some extremely harsh environments. And it’s incredible to see the way they manage it…or don’t.
What struck me this latest season, more than any of the other seasons, is food. The entire conversation around nourishment, and sustenance. These competitors are given no rations, so they must hunt, fish, and gather what they eat. And it’s often barely enough. There are never enough berries, roots, and greens to nourish adult humans long-term. Fish won’t bite. Animals evade snares. What’s left? Bugs and slugs, often.
In fact, many of the show’s competitors over the years have tapped out simply because no matter how beautifully they built their shelter, no matter how great they are at keeping their fire lit, no matter how well they managed the weather and the wildlife…they just couldn’t get enough food to sustain them.
Obviously, these people could tap a button on their satellite phone and wait for the show to come and whisk them back to civilization. But it’s still a humbling thing to see them struggle for the one basic thing we all need.
Why does this matter on a Monday morning?
Because over the weekend I took a box and picked glowing Mirabelle plums from my neighbor’s tree at their urging, twelve pounds of golden beauty. And I took a metal bowl while the dog and I meandered around the property and harvested blackberries, the fattest ones I’ve ever seen here, sun-warm and smelling like perfume. I snipped the seedheads from our parsley plants and I spotted baby squashes and cucumbers ripening under leaves, later in the season than usual but so very welcome.
I was humbled by what I have available to me, the natural resources that I can so often take for granted.
I’m surrounded by so much abundance. And odds are, you are too.
It can be tempting to feel like we’re all just surviving, sometimes. Trying to eke out a living with scraps. But it isn’t necessarily so. Abundance often grows on trees. Providence springs up from the ground.
All we need is the vision to recognize it, the ability to gather it, and a bowl big enough to fill to the brim.
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The blessing of available food is nothing to belittle
Aw! Tears in my eyes...thank you. Your words mean so much - more than a whole bucketfull of plums, though it was a joy to imagine them!