Intermountain Christian Fellowship

We live to share the Good News in love.

Australia

Granny Smith Apples, Tea, and a “Mislead”

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Photo of Granny Smith apples and teacup
Can you spot the “mislead” in this photo?

For reasons obvious to people who know me, I particularly enjoy Australian or Australia-related foods and healthy beverages. Crisp and sweet-tart, Granny Smith apples, either in one of Karen’s famous apple pies or fresh with fine cheese are among my favorite fruits.

The Granny Smith cultivar (a plant variety that has been produced in cultivation by selective breeding) actually originated in Eastwood, New South Wales, less than 20 miles from where I grew up. The bright-green fruit variety’s developer was Maria Ann Smith, a popular orchardist, who in 1868 reportedly chanced upon its first seedling among some ferns near a local creek. After she and her husband Thomas had raised a large family, Maria became widely known as “Granny Smith.” By the mid-1970s, almost half of Australia’s apple crop was Granny Smith apples, and since the 1980s an October “Granny Smith Festival” draws many thousands of people to both Eastwood and the nearby town of Ryde.

Oh, and another typically Australian delight is carefully brewed, truly hot tea. Karen follows the strict rule of bringing the water to a full bubbling boil, pre-heating the china pot and china cups, and allowing the tea leaves fully, richly to steep in the hot, hot water. Yum!

Well, what then is the “mislead”? There is a kind of “trick” in this blog entry. Study my still-life photo and the story above to see if you can decide how I have attempted to mislead you. To award a prize, we will draw from names of those who correctly identify my trickery and submit their answers in the comments below.

Also, you won’t want to miss a future blog article in which I will provide a practical lesson remarkably well illustrated by today’s posting.

Love to all from Grahame

June 13th Memory

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Photo of Carl Campbell Nicolson, December 26th, 1908 – June 14th, 1965
Carl Campbell Nicolson, December 26th, 1908 – June 14th, 1965

On Sunday, June 13th, 1965 (June 14th in Sydney), I was preparing to teach Vacation Bible School in Loma, Montana, when my friend Dave Dixon drove in from Big Sandy to tell me there was an emergency phone call for me from Australia.

After the overseas operator connected me, my brother Brian broke the news that our dad, Carl C. Nicolson, had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was with the Lord.

This 21-year-old college-student Aussie was not exactly flush with cash, so attending Dad’s memorial service in Sydney was sadly out of the question. However, comfort and hope from God, family, and friends saw me through those days; and ever since, I have rejoiced in and drawn from our mother and father’s heritage of faithfulness.

For example, I constantly draw inspiration from a poem Dad wrote to me in 1963 shortly before I sailed from home to North America:

Go, then, my son.
And may God give you to taste deeply
Of His matchless love and grace.
And in that glorious work
On Calvary’s cross begun,
May you for Him secure an honored place.

It may not always be the garden of the LORD,
Not every tree a glorious fruit will bear.
But just remember, ‘neath the barren soil
There are the roots
Which, by the power of prayer,
Will spring to life and glorify our God.

— Carl C. Nicolson, 1908 – 1965

What about you? As we look to Father’s Day celebrations this month here in the USA, how are you thankful for your dad? Share with us in the comments if you like.