Garlic Scapes

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