Gleanings

Why use the word "gleanings"? It could just as well be "reflections". However, the term "gleanings" has significance in my life. Let me explain. When I was in the sixth grade, I won a prize for the best score on an art exam. My prize was a small copy of the famous painting, The Gleaners, by Jean-Francois Millet. It shows some peasant farmers gathering leftovers in a grain field. Prizes were hard to come by at that time in my life, so I cherished the picture and kept it in my memories. Months ago the picture appeared on a Sunday School lesson booklet, renewing my interest in the painting and in the act of gleaning.

I searched for the word in the Bible and found several references in the Old Testament, especially in the Book of Ruth. In the Hebrew language the word is laqat, meaning to pick up, gather, or gather up. In Ruth 2, several verses point to Ruth gleaning heads of grain in the fields after Boaz. When the farmers finished gathering their crops, the poor were allowed to pick up the leftovers in the farmer's fields (Leviticus 23:22). Leftovers are something I can relate to, since they played a part in my early years.

Other definitions in the dictionary included, "gathering information or other material bit by bit,"and "picking over in search of relevant material." Much of my life’s journey has been about gathering, picking, or sorting through life to find what is relevant. A person can do a lot of gleaning after 55 years of marriage, helping raise four children, teaching in the university for 30 years, working in an oil field, working on a highway right-of-way crew, working with Boy Scouts and the YMCA, coaching baseball, umpiring softball games, running screen printing and consultant businesses, and more importantly, serving in various capacities in the church for some 30 years.

In the weeks to come, we will share in some thoughts that have been gleaned from both the world and the Word. My hope is that you can identify with some of the offerings, and that you will be blessed by what you read.

Ron Marionneaux

LESSONS FROM THE BEACH: PART I

We are all students of one thing or another. Having taught geography at the university for some thirty years, I am continuously observing the world around me, hoping to gain a better understanding of why things are where they are and why they work the way they do. God is a master teacher and He uses a variety of circumstances in his amazing classroom to increase our awareness and knowledge, and to draw us closer to Him.

A few years ago, our church group went to Myrtle Beach for a retreat - to meditate, soak up some sunshine, enjoy the sand, dine out, shop, and be entertained. Little did I know that God had some things He wanted to teach me during our short visit. These are some of the lessons I learned as I went about the activities of a leisurely retreat:

God’s creativity - seen in the vastness of the ocean, and the patterns and symmetry of the waves and the sand; in the diversity of the sea shells and other forms of life; in the beauty of a sunrise or a sunset and the color of the water; in the uniqueness of tiny shells and other forms of aquatic life.

God’s control - reflected in the order of the waves, and the systematic actions of the various forms of sea life; in the regularity of the sunrise and sunset; in the high tides followed by low tides, the beach advancing and then retreating, only to advance again; in the repeated cycles of erosion and deposition. All of nature around us seems to be working according to some larger plan, a plan which man in all of his earthly knowledge is unable to control.

Peoples’ actions - evident in the hurry-scurry of activities, the array of creature comforts, the inability of people to pause and reflect on the meaning of things. So many people, so much of the time, moving so rapidly, caught up in their comforts and conveniences, like so much sound and fury, signifying nothing, and totally oblivious to the creativity, beauty and vastness of their immediate surroundings. And all the time the ebb and flow of the waves and the slow drifting of the clouds calls out to them for the need to slow down a little, relax just a bit, and enjoy the simple pleasures that God has provided.