Back To Home Page To Archives - Spring of Life - H. Roger Bothwell On Feeding the Soul Fall is officially here and right on schedule the nights have become cooler. It is as if someone threw a weather switch according to schedule. There is a bright colored leaf here and there teasing us with a foretaste of the glorious splendor soon to follow. My wife has pulled all the petunias out of the yard and replaced them with mums. In just a few days they will brighten the corners of the yard adding to the red and yellow leaves. At first, like some old curmudgeon, I wondered about the expenditure of the few dollars it took to replace the flowers. I thought things like, "They are only going to freeze in a month and turn brown. Why waste the money? Could we not have given the money to one of our needy college students?" Then I remembered Jesus reprimanding Judas for such thoughts when the perfume from the alabaster box was being poured on His feet. He said that we would always have the needy among us. While definitely not advocating that we never help the poor He does point out the necessity of adding acts of beauty to our lives. He once said, "Man shall not live by bread alone." The intent being that our souls have needs as well as our stomachs. Balance is the key. While acts of charity are extremely important so is the need to care for the esthetics of life. Our God is a lover of beauty and wants very much for us to enhance our lives with lovely things such as a garden of mums. I'm Roger Bothwell and my address is hrb1@tiac.net or 151 Old Farm Rd. Leominster, MA 01453. Thank you for your support of our faith ministry. Past devotionals can be accessed at Archives