Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. James 5:7-8.

This verse has been rumbling around in my brain throughout Advent. I am not sure what exactly I am being impatient for or about, but I think the Lord wants me to cool it.

Perhaps it is just a reminder during this time of year to not get caught up in my plans.

Because this is precisely the time of year when I like to look back over the past year and begin planning for the new one.

What went well; what didn’t. What did God teach me? What did I have to learn the hard way? When did I insist on my own way; how did that work out? Where can I see God at work over the past year?

A year in review, if you will, without the sordid headlines.

The problem with a year in review is that it begs the question, what am I going to do differently this year? Sometimes the answer is “nothing.” But if I want to grow something new in my garden, I have to find the space and the time to grow it. If I want to nourish a new area of growth in my life, I need to commit resources to it. But then I hear that verse again.

The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. James 5:7-8.

Shouldn’t I be doing something while I am waiting patiently? Well yes, if having a garden has taught me anything, it is that there is always work to be done. Perhaps the point is that I don’t need to be worrying about when or if the crops will bear fruit.

If my garlic fails, because I have now cut garlic scapes three times while it is still winter, then they fail, and I have had delicious garlic scapes to use all winter.

If you all stop reading these posts because, honestly, how many times do you want to read about the wonder of a seed and the beauty of fruit, then so be it.

If my idea of how long it should take to write a book is years different from how long it actually takes, then I will be patient.

If I have to make a new year’s resolution, something I avoid, it is to continue to plant seeds in faith that God will bring forth fruit when the time is right. To be content if I should sow and another reap. To not worry about the seed that falls on rocky or weedy ground.

Because who knows what tomorrow will bring? Only God.

So, Lord, let me plant good seeds in the new year. Bring them to fruition in Your time. Help me be patient and wait for the early and late rains. Thank you for the opportunities You give me. Thank you for seeds to plant.

Happy New Year, dear friends!

Betsy

I have finally finished preparing my home for Christmas. Everything is ready for what’s next. Now I must wait.

Sometimes it’s tempting to add more things to the list, keep the adrenaline pumping. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the Protestant work ethic abhors an empty list. And, of course, there is always more I could do, but I am choosing not to.

Today, I think I will get a cup of hot chocolate, turn on some Amy Grant music, maybe even get a fire going in the fireplace.

Is this just age? The after-effects of an autumn of illness throughout my family; A month of surgeries and falls and heartbreaks among my friends? It’s almost as if God has been reminding me how to be still, be quiet, be at home; lessons I learned during Covid then promptly forgot.

And while waiting is difficult, I find it somehow comforting to be ready and waiting. I am not anxious. I can see God’s hand in preparing me for all that has come before; I can sense God’s hand preparing me for what is to come. More and more, I am convinced that my only real task is to share God’s love with those around me, and everything else is secondary. Whether my plans succeed or fail, whether I succeed or fail, only matters to the extent that I show love through my actions.

If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. I Corinthians 13:2.

And if I am busy showing love as best I can to those around me, then I can be confident that when the master returns, whenever that may be, he will find me at my task. (Mark 13:32-37) Not that I have it all figured out or am always the easiest person to be around, but I do know what God wants from me, and there is peace in that.

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8.

And because we mortals are so very bad at following even these simple directions, Jesus came to live among us as a fellow mortal, to show us how to do it. Even better than a You Tube video. And He stands for us in heaven, forgiving our failures, sending His Spirit to guide and strengthen us, allowing us entry. What a friend we have in Jesus!

So, instead of rushing around completing a million little tasks that that might impress my friends and family, I am choosing to wait on the Lord. Read His Word. Love His children. Commune with His Spirit. Listen for His guidance.

And in the stillness, in the quiet, I not only sense peace, I also sense joy and love. His presence.

For He has come; He comes still; He will come again. May He find us all ready and waiting when He does.

Happy Advent and Merry Christmas!

Betsy

I have had trouble this year getting in ‘the Christmas spirit.’ By that I mean decorating my house, laughing at parties with a drink in my hand, dressing up in red and green with special jewelry and sparkly additions. My home has yet to be covered in wrapping paper and ribbons and tape and gift tags. I am still using my everyday plates.

When did Christmas become a time of such forced jovialness? Not to worry, there are services and programs for those of us who aren’t feeling so jolly. As if being serious were a mental health condition that needed addressing.

Is all this exuberance and decorating really ‘the Christmas spirit?’ Maybe, as Dr. Suess tells us, Christmas doesn’t come from a store.

“It came without ribbons, it came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags.” — The Grinch

Maybe this Christmas will be more like “Silent Night” and less like “Jingle Bells.”

It’s not sadness, or grief, or seasonal affectation disorder, or “blue Christmas.” Perhaps I am finally grasping what advent is, the coming of a savior into a dark and troubled world, to a people who need saving, from themselves if no one else.

And the world stayed dark and troubled, even when the light shone in it. All the lights on the houses and the glitter on the trees cannot expel the darkness in our souls. Only Jesus Christ can do that. Only God can do that.

What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. John 1:4-5.

I may not use my Christmas dishes until Christmas Day, until people come over. I am wondering why I have Christmas dishes. I don’t have Easter dishes, although I do have Easter decorations… Are all these accoutrements really necessary? Do I have them to help me ‘get in the spirit?’ Perhaps to impress my neighbors and friends? To not be seen as the grinch?

My neighbor has a larger-than-life inflatable Will Ferrell dressed as an elf in their front yard. My next-door neighbor’s house lights make it difficult to sleep. I hope I never hear “Santa, baby” again. I am beginning to sound a bit grinchy!!

And that is not the Christmas spirit or the advent spirit.

What a gift God has given us! Access to Him through Jesus. What a gift God has given us! A renewed mind, a fresh outlook, a revitalized life. What a gift God has given us! Peace and joy and love for one another. What a gift God has given us! Light to dispel the darkness within us, to shine on those around us. What a gift!

I want to tell you about His gift to me. I want to share it with you. I want you to know you can get this gift as well. Free Gift – Click here to enter!

Perhaps I will invite you to my home and serve you dinner on special plates. Perhaps I will put lights on a tree and on my house and let them light up the night sky. Perhaps I will find silly ways to make the children around me laugh and make us stodgy adults laugh as well.

Perhaps I will give a little gift to everyone I encounter to remind us of the marvelous extravagant gift God has given us.

Perhaps God has put a little Christmas spirit in me after all!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holy days!

Betsy

The planting instructions warned that the garlic bulbs might send up sprouts, in the Spring. Imagine my surprise to see them now! Someone who lived farther north must have written the instructions; in Tennessee, we have warm sunny spells throughout the winter.

Fortunately, I had wandered out to the garden in the days after Thanksgiving, something I do every few weeks during the winter. And look! Garlic scapes!

The instructions are quite clear: cut them off. Until next summer, all the nutrients need to stay in the bulb, not transfer above ground.

So, I cut all the scapes off the garlic bulbs.

I felt a little cruel, snipping off these efforts to reach for the sun, rudely ending the plants’ attempts to grow.

But it is not their time. As a gardener trying to grow garlic bulbs, it is my responsibility to nip this instinctive urge to grow in the bud. They may feel that they are doing what they are meant to do, and doing it well, which they are. But the timing is not right.

I know that there are winter months ahead. I know that the bulbs need to store their nutrients. I know that these bulbs need more time in the quiet earth before they can reach their full potential.

I wonder if the bulbs consider me a cruel and vengeful gardener who is denying them success or if they can trust that I have a better plan for them?

Can I trust that God has a better plan for me?

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9.

The advent season is all about waiting until God says the time is right.

The Jewish people had to wait 500 years for God to fulfill His vision to Isaiah of the Messiah’s birth. We are still waiting for the peaceable kingdom and the new heaven and new earth.

It makes me think of the wrapped presents under the tree. They are there. They are for us. One day, the gift inside will be ours. But not today. It’s not the right time yet.

Sometimes I have gotten all excited about doing something, and having done it, wanted to share it with the world, who had little or no interest in it. I’d like to think I was sending up garlic scapes: good things, wrong time.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Galatians 5:6.

Because whatever I am doing, if I am doing it for the Lord, it is His to use as He see fit.

And that well may mean I never know its impact. What I do, what you do, may be an acorn planted whose tree we never see. We may never know the weary traveler who rests under its branches. But God knows that traveler is coming, so He encourages us to plant that acorn. It is our mission to hear His voice and do our part; plant the acorn.

Sometimes, our role seems too simple.

Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was “Wash and be clean.” 2 Kings 5:13.

For now, my garlic’s job is to keep all its nutrients underground. It is my job to help it do so by cutting off its desire to show itself before its time. So, I cut off all the garlic scapes.

And God has rewarded me for making the garlic wait for the right time. I have delicious garlic scapes to add to my leftover turkey and dressing, and more to add to every dish I cook. They are a wonderful addition to eggs, pasta, burgers, and potatoes.

What probably looks like dashed hopes and failure to the garlic bulb, God is using to bless my life today and ensure a larger role for the garlic bulb in the future.

Betsy