In my last post, “… listen up …” I shared with you about the trip Ted and I made to Mackinac Island. We were fortunate to stay two nights at the historic Grand Hotel. Did you know that this hotel, built in 1887, boasts the world’s longest porch, measuring 668 feet long? It is both beautiful and impressive.

All along the edge of the porch are planter boxes filled with red geraniums. They are lovely! (In the photo above, it was still early in the season and although there ARE geraniums on the left side of the porch, the planter boxes on the right had not yet been filled!) A website that spoke of the grand things of The Grand Hotel gave me the stats to share with you: “The Grand’s famous Front Porch flowers include 1,375 geraniums in 147 planting boxes with 12 yards of potting soil. Grand Hotel uses 2,500 geraniums, its trademark flower, in all its flower beds combined.”

Oh my – like – WOW!

As we were sitting on the porch during our getaway with our friends Cherie and Bruce, Cherie told me about how every morning, a gardener at The Grand will walk down the length of the porch and pick every dead leaf and flower petal from the planting boxes. Every day! What a meticulous job! How fabulous to be sure that the flower boxes always look perfect and fresh and lovely.

It made me think 🙂

What if WE could daily rid ourselves of any dead, useless bits in our life? Wait – we can! We might not be as pretty as a geranium or fresh as a daisy, but Jesus tells us that if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins. And – we can ask for forgiveness DAILY!

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What a wonderful gardener our great God is! He helps us grow, and can help us with the weeding!

I hope, as you enjoy the flower or vegetable gardens around you this season, that you keep in mind how God may be pruning you and helping you to grow. He is there to forgive you of your sins – all you need to do is ask!

just Laurel