In Blades of Grass

 In Blades of Grass

Sometimes it takes a while to notice something, even when it’s right in front of you.  Sometimes it’s a good, long while.  This week I finally noticed grass.  Or, maybe more to the point, I noticed grasses, plural.  I have one fairly significant hill on my morning walks when I take the long way around.  It takes me almost 20 minutes to get to the top.  I tell myself that it is good work for my heart.  I know that it’s also good for my eyes because whether it is trying to divert my attention from the stress of the steady climb, or the slightly slower pace of heading uphill, it’s a good time and a good place to notice things.  This week I noticed grass.  Or, as I already stated, maybe more to the point, I noticed grasses, plural.

If you drive this road, and if you noticed the grasses along the road at all, they were  probably just a green blur.  Even those who limit themselves to the posted speed limit are cruising past at 45 mph.  When you walk along the road there is plenty of time to see and take in the detail.  That’s when you get a deeper appreciation that God always paints creation in fine detail; he never paints with broad brush strokes.  I had a very good boss once who often said that, “The devil is in the detail.”  He was encouraging me to be careful in the planning, but he was quite mistaken about that one important thing.  It is God who is in the detail!

Today, I noticed the variety in the grasses growing along the roadside ditches.  I tried to count them.  I soon realized that to truly keep track I should have picked one of each type as I walked along, because after I had counted up to 14 different types, I was no longer certain whether I had counted that particular variety or not.  So, I can only confidently claim that I counted at least 14 types of grasses. 

The first detail of notice is the different seed heads that catch the eye.  There are ones where the seeds cling so tightly along the stem that you have to look hard to even notice them.  Then there are ones with long grain seeds that hang loosely in all different directions, looking like a miniature firework in the instant of explosion.  Some look like spear points and others like tiny cattails.  Some are reddish, others tannish, others are various shades of green.  My favorite is long and graceful, more like tufts of silken hair than grass seed.

When you notice the different seed heads, then you also realize the different heights.   Some have gone to seed just a foot off the ground and others stand chest-high.  Some of the stems seem stiff and straight while others lean over at the top, and they quiver in the slightest of breezes.

It is that movement of grass that may be the most intriguing aspect of all.  When a breeze
ripples across a field of wild grasses you can literally see the wind.  It is like looking into the face of the Holy Spirit as he continues to move across the face of the earth.  And the grace in those ripples testify that the Holy Spirit’s work remains, and always has been, as innocent and pure and joyful as play.

“The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.  Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.  When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.  Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil.  When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.”  Proverbs 8:22-31  

His Peace <><

Deacon Dan