Tending the Earth

This summer was my second summer gardening. I started it to save some money and have fresh produce on hand. What I didn't expect was how much work God would do in my heart as I worked in the dirt this year. It became a garden of healing for me.

I struggled a lot in the spring with the fact that I hadn't planned on having a garden at all this year, because I was planning on having a new baby. But I planned and prepped. Working in the dirt was scary and reminded me of Jairus's burial. But I got down on my hands and knees and planted, sowing the seeds with my (literal) tears, praying for healing and sense to come, praying for faith to keep going. Praying for faith that God would grow beauty from ashes.

I tended my small plot in the front yard of our home (the only space that gets enough sunlight without having to tear out a tree) and grew a small variety of veggies from seed: spinach, peapods, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, basil, dill and oregano as well as some flowers and perrenial plants. I've been able to can pickles and tomatoes, freeze carrots, dry seasonings and have lots of fresh salads and snacks throughout the season. And I love it, I loved watching the plants come in, tending them daily, seeing the fruit ripen and enjoying the delicious fruit of our labor.

When I garden, I meditate on what God's up to in my life, a pray, I get dirty, I focus on the project at hand. I think about God being a gardener, (In the creation of man, God Himself got down in the dirt and formed His treasured creation with His own hands. What an intimate and loving way to create people!) I cry, I teach the kids a new skill and about caring for creation, I practice faith in a real time experiment. After adding each crop I worried that it wouldn't really come up or that I would find a way to ruin it. But the Lord designed those seeds to do their thing, and He delights in showing that faith works. And up came the seeds and out grew the plants and them one day we had veggies galore!

Nothing in this life is really in our control, though we try so hard to convince ourselves it is. God is orchestrating His beautiful love story through history. He has designed His Goodness to penetrate creation, to produce Fruit for the good of His children. I couldn't do anything to make those seeds grow. I could tend the garden, make preparations and do my part to help them, but only God could make them change into the great plants they were designed to be. I can't take the mess of my own life and do anything with it, but if I can give it to God and trust Him with it, He will turn my mess and my pain into something beautiful, healing, fruitful. And I am counting on Him to do just that.