Kimberly and I picked strawberries today at Lane's Packing. It was a glorious day outside. The sun was so bright, which made the ripe strawberries even more visible. Kimberly looked beautiful. (That's all I have to say about that!). Anyway, here is some gee-whiz info about strawberries that I didn't know: 'Madam Tallien, a great figure of the French Revolution, who was nicknamed Our Lady of Thermidor, used to take baths full of strawberries to keep the full radiance of her skin.' ' Fontenelle, centenarian writer and gourmet of the 18th century, considered his long life was due to the strawberries he used to eat.' ' Though originally from the New World, strawberries were considered poisonous in Argentina until the mid-nineteenth century.' 'Over 53 percent of seven to nine year olds picked strawberries as their favorite fruit.' 'Eight strawberries will provide 140 percent of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C for kids.' 'The strawberry is the only fruit with the seeds on the outside of the fruit.' And what is interesting is that the 'seeds' that you see on the outside are the actual fruit.
















When I consider how many strawberries are produced each year(1 billion pounds each year in California) and that 'on average their are about 200 'seeds' (which are the actual fruit) in one strawberry' I think about Psalm 104. 'You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate,that he may bring forth food from the earth...'(vs. 14), 'O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all...'(vs. 24), 'May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works...' (vs. 31). 'He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together' Colossians 1:15-17. Finally, with Psalmist, 'I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord' Psalm 104:33.

To those who are hungry I set before you a feast that will be released in October. I am so excited about this. The ESV bible is my translation of preference for two reasons. One, it's a word-for-word translation rather than a thought-for-thought translation. The difference is pretty obvious. Here is an explanation from the intro to the ESV: "The ESV is an 'essentially literal' translation that seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer. As such, its emphasis is on 'word-for-word' correspondence, at the same time taking into account differences of grammar, syntax, and idiom between current literary English and the original languages. Thus it seeks to be transparent to the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original...A thought-for-thought translation is of necessity more inclined to reflect the interpretive opinions of the translator and the influences of contemporary culture." The other reason is that it is readable. Again from the intro: "As an essentially literal translation, then, the ESV seeks to carry over every possible nuance of meaning in the original words of Scripture into our own language." I am by no means advocating that thought-for-thought translations are of no use. In fact I have one, the New Living Tranlation. But if I'm going to study or read, I'm going to use the ESV. You can read more about it here.