My tomatoes are ripening, it makes me so happy! The little green tomatoes have fattened and became light and lighter. Now they are turning pink. They stand out against all the green leaves, drawing my eyes to their difference.

But I am not the only one who has noticed this ripening fruit. The birds have noticed as well. They love to come and peck the tomatoes as soon as any rose hint appears. Are they drinking the juice? Attracting bugs for a more protein rich meal? Confusing it with a flower? Who knows? What I do know is they can destroy my tomatoes.

So every summer I go through the ridiculously laborious task if putting up bird netting. After several summers of losing our tomatoes to the birds, Nick erected a metal pole frame over which we could lay the netting. This at least keeps the plants from growing through the netting. The netting is almost invisible and catches on everything, even grass. Getting the netting unfolded, unrolled, and over the metal poles, which are taller than me, tests my patience.

And it’s not something I can do by myself.

But if this extra effort helps protect a bountiful harvest of fruit, then it is definitely worth the time and frustration.

Am I willing to exert that effort to protect my spiritual fruit from predators who aim to destroy it?

Because just as red tomatoes stand out against green leaves, your spiritual fruit will stand out against the background of worldly living. When you are loving when you have every “right” to be angry, when you are gentle when many would use force, when you are peaceful in a time of unrest, others will notice. Some will admire you and rejoice, but others will take advantage of you, apply more pressure, maybe even make you a target.

For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but … against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly place. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to … stand firm. Ephesians 6:12-13

To make sure that my fruit continues to ripen unscarred and protected from those who would destroy it, I need to shield it with bird netting. I need to erect a barrier between my fruit, the evidence of the Holy Spirit in my life, and the world around me, a barrier that is almost invisible but keeps the fruit intact.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

Like putting up bird netting, renewing our minds is not a simple task. It can be time-consuming and frustrating. It catches on our emotions and knee-jerk reactions. We, I, often fall far short of what is good or acceptable, much less perfect.

But don’t give up. Keep at the task, because that layer of protection is the only way the fruit can ripen without being destroyed.

Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Hebrews 12:11

And it’s not something I can do by myself.

I need my church. I need my Christian friends. I need the Holy Spirit – after all, it’s His fruit that’s growing!

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. Ephesians 6:18

The tomatoes are turning red, displaying themselves to the world. It is a time of joy, but also a time when they need additional protection from that which would steal and destroy them. Put in the effort, my friend, and get that bird netting in place.

Thank you for reading this and sharing it with your friends. The world needs to see the fruit of the Spirit right now. I pray it is growing in your life, ripening for all to see.

Betsy

Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

Cucumbers, like all their squash cousins, are rambunctious, exuberant, enthusiastic plants. The plants will grow to fill whatever space you have provided and then grow some more. Fences are merely obstacles easily overcome.

In our first garden, we planted winter squash because the plants were available. We had no fence on our terraced garden, so the squash grew into our yard, through the fence and into the neighbor’s yard. We ate squash until we were sick of it.

That first year, we planted the cucumbers next to the tomatoes. The cucumbers grew into the tomatoes and hung their fruit on the cages right beside the tomatoes.

Now, I plant the cucumbers alone, away from any other vegetable, and fence them in on all sides.

But a fence is not enough. When I walk my garden every day, I have to put the cucumbers vines back inside the fence. They are not very fragile, so I can manhandle them more than I can the tomatoes. I need to be just as enthusiastic as they are.

I love their enthusiasm. I can relate. I often feel like I am on the verge of being out of control, like I am testing the boundaries and going outside the fence. I am grateful that God sends His Spirit to corral my exuberance.

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. John 16:12

My ministers, my Christian friends, the Bible – all help me stay inside the fence, help me stay in right relationship, help my wandering thoughts to return to God and Jesus.

All scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16

And you know what? This rambunctious, exuberant, enthusiastic attitude is exactly what makes cucumbers and their squash cousins such prolific producers of fruit. They have no fear, no timidity, no apparent caution. They just keep growing until a stronger hand moves them back into the fence.

I think God likes enthusiasm.

Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Romans 12:11

In John’s Revelation, only the church of Laodicea receives no praise.

So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:16

So grow with abandonment dear cucumbers! I will corral and correct your growth, just as God corrals and corrects mine. I hope that my enthusiasm makes God smile as much as the cucumber’s enthusiasm makes me smile.

I pray I can be as enthusiastic about serving the Lord, about growing in my faith, about becoming all that God has planned for me to be, as my cucumbers are.

But I also admire those hardy pepper plants. They grow up straight and strong and bear their fruit with pride. Growing between the tomatoes and cucumbers, I check on them every day, but rarely do they need anything from me except water. I’d like to think I could be like them, not needing correction and containment or even tender training, but God creates each plant differently and each person differently.

So whether you relate to the enthusiastic cucumber, the prized tomato, or the independent pepper, or even the fragile sugar snap, know that God values you. Praise God that He grows all kinds of plants in His garden. Praise God that He cares for each plant in the manner best suited to its particular needs. Please know that He values, grows, and cares for each of you as well.

God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. Genesis 1:29

Keep growing, my friend!

Betsy

In Him all things were created. John 1:3

My tomatoes look so good! After the disaster of the sugar snaps, these healthy plants are a source of joy.

But I still need to tend to them daily. Not only do they need water, but they need training.

Tomato stems are not strong enough to bear their own weight, much less the weight of their fruit. As the branches grow, I must continually pull them inside the tomato cages or they will lie on the ground, spoiling the fruit. I gently lift the growing branches and rest them on the nearest rib of the cage. Gently, gently, because the new branches are fragile.

If I allow the branch to get too big before training them to the cage, I will have to bend the branch and risk breaking it. So I watch for fresh growth and support the branches with the cage as soon as possible.

The importance of training the tomatoes to the cages is something we learned from experience. Many plants, like the pepper plants, can bear the weight of their own fruit, but tomato plants cannot. The weight of the tomato will break the branch. Only when the branch is supported by the cage, can it bear the weight of the ripe tomato.

Do I need to be trained to accept support? I’m not a fan of needing help. It makes me feel old and weak. But these tomatoes are healthy and growing. It’s not that the plant is weak, but that the fruit is massive in comparison. A pear has an entire tree to support it. A similar sized tomato has only this tiny plant.

Perhaps, if my fruit is large compared to myself, I need support for it.

Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amelek prevailed. But Moses’ arms grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and the other on the other side, so his hands were steady. Exodus 17:11-12

I find the fruit of the Spirit so appealing – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity and self-control. So Melanie from Gone with the Wind. So counter to my Scarlett personality. I need support; I need to be trained to bear this fruit successfully. I am grateful to my friends who offer that support and gently correct me. I am thankful when they let me lean on them. Hopefully, I will can do the same for them or someone else someday. That is what the Christian community is all about – support.

Therefore encourage one another, and build up each other, as indeed you are doing… And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. I Thessalonians 5:11,14

Already there are little yellow flowers and tiny green tomatoes in my garden. I know it will be weeks, perhaps even months, before I can harvest any. But the promise is there. And the reminder to train the plant to the support cage before the fruit becomes heavy. A reminder to allow myself to be supported; to support others, and to encourage others to accept support. With support, the plant can produce abundant fruit. With support, that fruit is visible and available to the world.

In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

Thank you for supporting me as I garden, and as I write about gardening. Thank you to the many of you who have helped me grow as a Christian and learn to live as a widow. I thank our Lord for the gift of you.

Betsy

Let me praise God before the assembly. Psalm 22:22

I have sugar snaps! All three of them were delicious!

I heard an actor speak once about the false gods Americans embrace – success, wealth and beauty. The importance of these is so interwoven into our culture that we hardly recognize it. Many of us weave these into our religion as well, somehow believing that living faithfully will make us successful, wealthy, and beautiful. But is this the example Jesus gave us? Without His resurrection, would any of us describe Jesus as successful, wealthy, or beautiful? Certainly not in the the world’s view.

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father?” Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? John 24:9-10

Of course, the tricky part of this is “success” because the definition is flexible. Was Jesus a success because many people came out to listen to Him? 10,000 likes on Facebook? Success used to be linked with wealth, but we could also link it with power or influence. In today’s culture, a company needs to be profitable, generous and socially conscious to be “successful,” although I think the profitable bit is still very key.

Was my sugar snap garden successful? I got three peas. Is that success? No, it is not. I have been round and round about what went wrong, what I could do better, and what I will try next year. Because even if I am not “successful,” I believe God wants me to give it my best effort.

Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord. Colossians 3:23

But for now, the spring garden is a bust. It is time to pull up the cages, take down the fence and let the mowers cut the weeds back. This year’s sugar snaps were a failure. If I were in a more unhealthy place, I might feel like I was a failure as well. There have certainly been times when my failure at a task has led me to feel like a failure as a person. But today, it just feels like another lesson from the garden. Perhaps being able to write about it has helped.

Perhaps I am redefining “success” and “failure.” Perhaps “success” has very little to do with production or profit or popularity. Perhaps it has nothing to do with wealth or beauty.

Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me. Matthew 19:21

I am grateful for my three sugar snaps. I ate them with joy and thanksgiving. They were a gift from God. And they came, as they do every year, around Pentecost.

Pentecost, 50 days after Passover/Easter, marks the end of the Festival of Weeks and the celebration of First Fruits. One of the oldest Jewish festivals, Moses made it a mandatory celebration in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. By Jesus’s time, the Jewish people celebrated Pentecost as the day God gave His law to His people. It was as the people were celebrating the gift of the law that God gave the gift of His Spirit to His people.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place…. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:1-4

And isn’t it always a “success” when God gives us a gift? When God gives us His law, so we know what pleases and angers Him? When God gives us His Spirit to make us new creations? When God gives me three delicious sugar snaps to enjoy?

Thank You, Lord. What wonderful fruit You have created. What a blessing You have given to me. Thank You.

Betsy

Thank you for reading along and joining me on this journey. Even if you don’t have a garden, God is growing something in your life. Trust Him and enjoy the fruit.

The earth is full of His majesty. Isaiah 6:3

I didn’t want to post this picture. It is a picture of flaws and failings. It is a picture of what my sugar snaps look like right now. Not what I want them to look like, but what they actually look like.

God uses flawed and failing people to do wonderful things. He could just do them Himself, but He works through us instead. Hopefully, God can use my flaws and failings as well, because those sugar snaps look like failure to me.

I seem to remember having sugar snaps to eat by this time in the past, but the plants are too immature this year. They are barely taller than the weeds. Will I be able to harvest some of the delicious fruit? I don’t know.

A garden is an act of faith, just like the Christian life. I’m doubting right now.

If a garden has taught me nothing else, it has taught me I am not its master. There are too many variables outside my control.

How much can I do, really, to guarantee a harvest of sugar snaps?

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring…. Instead, you ought to say, “if the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16

I want to “fix it.” I want to make the garden do what I want it to do. I want those sugar snaps tall and healthy and producing fruit right now. Shall I stomp my foot? Do you think it would help?

Sigh. Of course not.

Has it ever helped?

There are things beyond my control. Many, many things. Most things. Family, friends, pets, wildlife, trees, and my sugar snaps. I can influence them, but I am not in control of them. I love them too much to beat them into submission. So instead I will encourage them.

I will continue to go out every day and talk to my plants. I will water them and encourage them to cling to the support provided. I will be patient.

I am going to have faith that I will get at least some sugar snap harvest. There are plants, and they are growing. Nature is God’s non-verbal expression of His love, and God and nature operate on their own schedule, not taking my plans into account. This is how it needs to be. God, being God, has a much better vision of what and when than I do.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. Isaiah 55:8

I take comfort from the Jesus’ parable of the sower told in Matthew 13 and Luke 8. Even if the seed has escaped being trampled on or eaten by birds, even if it has grown deep roots in good soil and overcome the thorns, even when it has brought forth fruit, the results vary.

Other seed fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty. Matthew 13:8

Maybe this is just a “thirty-fold” year. It may even be a year of no harvest. Maybe I just need to not compare this year to other years, or this garden to other gardens, or myself to other people. Or, as my yoga and stretch teacher says, keep my eyes on my own mat.

Keep my eyes on what God is growing in this garden right now. Love on these sugar snaps and be grateful for them. Rejoice in their growth and give thanks for whatever they may yield.

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God for you. I Thessalonians 5:18

Will I get a sugar snap harvest? I’ll keep you posted.

Betsy

Restore a right spirit within me, O lord. Psalm 51:10

This year, I planted my sugar snaps in the middle of the garden. Last year, I planted them closer to the creeks; last year we flooded.

It was the night before Palm Sunday. Triumphant? Not that year. I live in a floodplain and love my creeks, but about every ten years they become a raging river and flood my garage and surround my house. 2021 was that year.

The little sugar snap plants had come up, bursting through their seed coverings and the tilled ground to reach their tendrils toward the sun. And then the flood came. Rushing water pressed the landscape timbers against the fencing. The water submerged the tender young plants for hours; pushing and pulling them. Strong currants re-arranged the dirt, emptying it from some spots and piling it high in others. 

For days I had to deal with more pressing concerns – cleaning up, replacing the damaged appliances, dealing with workers and insurance companies. It was several days before I could turn my tired and achy body to restoring the garden. I’d lost some plants. On top of all the other losses from the flood, this one almost crushed me – these plants, unlike the water heater, were irreplaceable. Disappointment loomed large.

In the world you will face tribulation; but take heart, for I have overcome the world. John 16:33

I once heard that the key to happiness is low expectations. Disappointment results from life not living up to our expectations. I had prepared the garden and cared for those little seeds in expectations of a wonderful crop of sugar snaps; and now that expectation appeared to be dashed. Likewise, our friend may let us down; our marriage may falter; our job may not work out; our child may struggle; some mysterious virus may come along and shut down all our plans. We had expectations; and now we have disappointment.

Walking with God and growing in His likeness does not rid us of disappointments. Even Jesus faced disappointments. Judas and Peter disappointed Jesus. James and John disappointed Him by arguing over who was greatest; and the religious leaders disappointed Him with their hardened hearts. I am sure I disappoint God when I am attracted to things that aren’t holy. If God and Jesus face disappointment, why should I think I would not?

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you… rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings. I peter 4:12-13

For here’s the beauty of the Christian life – there is hope. I can restore the garden, and some of the sugar snaps will continue to grow. If not, there is next year. Peter repented and Jesus made him head of the church. James and John learned from Jesus’ teachings and example, and we can do the same. Hardened hearts can soften, and my attention can return to things that are worthy.

And the joy when that happens is priceless. Like the flower that blooms in defiance of the asphalt surrounding it, joy leaps from disappointment. Our relationships are repaired or replaced with better ones; there are moments of breakthrough and connection; we learn to prioritize our activities and treasure those that are dearest. Those first sugar snaps are exquisite.

….knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint. Romans 5:3-5

Faced with repairing the garden, I turned my disappointment of lost plants into efforts of rebuilding. I nurtured and supported those plants that were left. In the hope of future joy, I did the work to repair the flood damage and bring back the garden. And it was worth the effort. Because even though my Palm Sunday last year was far from triumphant, Easter still came. Jesus rose from the dead and sent His Spirit to abide with us. There is joy; there is triumph; there is Victory.

Thank you for reading the Victory Garden. I pray you have a joyous Easter.

Betsy

Emmanuel – God with us. Luke 1:23