Thank you, Lord, for adequate rain! Of all the things mankind has been trying to synthesize in a seeming effort to show that he doesn’t need God, rain is one of the most basic, taken-for-granted, and impossible things to control.
Maybe the rain is the reason for the comments lately about the gardens looking so “green.” I took these as compliments, but I really prefer more color in the flower beds. This year I’ve been very slow in planting my usual annuals that can provide quick color. After the big springtime show of irises and later the daylilies, there was nothing but – well, green.
This is always the “awkward phase” in the yard; after the big spring and summer perennials bloom. My distractions in the springtime has led to a very boring August with the lack of petunias and marigolds.
As I learn to plan and arrange the beds better, I have been mixing up textures and heights of various plants so that the sea of green would be less boring when I don’t get the temporary color planted. It seems to be working! I might get the hang of this gardening thing someday.
You may have heard it said that God’s favorite color is green, because he made so much of it. I can’t say if that’s true, but it’s not my favorite.
Neither is the “green” that we commonly refer to as money. It’s not my favorite thing, but of course I can’t live without it, and neither can you. It’s one of those “necessary evils.” It certainly is necessary. But is it really evil?
“The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10, KJV). This is one of the most misused verses in the Bible! It’s amazing how many people are eager to malign the rich, using this verse. Notice that the verse does not say “money is the root of all evil” but that the “love of money” is. In fact, the word “evil” is rendered “all kinds of evil” in many translations.
Money itself is not evil. In fact, many of the Bible’s greatest heroes had no lack of riches. Abraham was a wealthy man with so many animals and servants that he and his nephew Lot had to part ways. Job was also a wealthy man. King David, a “man after God’s own heart,” was obviously well off, building himself a fine palace and laying plans for a temple for God. His son Solomon’s riches were legendary. Even the Queen of Sheba came to admire them.
It is what is done with money, and the frantic pursuit of it, which leads to “all sorts of evil.”
And what is the result of this mad scramble for financial gain? Too often the love of money leads us away from God, only to leave us without the money we were chasing. “When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens” (Proverbs 23:5 NASB).
The lack of money can be a root of all kinds of evil also, as the scripture says in Proverbs 30:8-9. Too little and there is a temptation to obtain it unlawfully; too much and we think we can make it just fine without God.
“He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf” (Proverbs 11:28, NASB).
Okay, that kind of green is what I want! Let’s flourish like a green leaf.