Tag: God

What do I see?

The hour is early, and dew still covers the grass. The sun peeks through the tree line. Soon it will crest the woods and fix its burning gaze on my plants, but for now I can walk my garden in long sleeves. The soaker hose is bringing life-sustaining water, and the plants seem to be enjoying this morning respite from the heat as much as I do.

I approach my tomatoes with trepidation. Are they still there, or has some thief in the night come and stole them? With relief I see the green orbs still attached to their branches. I have yet to harvest a red tomato this year. The heat is crippling my cucumber vines. Each morning, I peruse these plants and harvest nothing. The empty harvest feels personal.

Is there more I should be doing? Did I make a critical mistake earlier? If so, can I correct it? Am I letting other distractions take precedence over my garden? Have I overestimated my abilities as a gardener?

I turn my attention to the basil bush. Bursting with leaves and perfuming the air, it calls for me to reap its bounty. I have pulled up all the garlic and processed it. Peeled, minced and frozen dozens of cloves which are now ready to be used when needed. This may well be the summer of pesto, served with pasta since I have no tomatoes.

The fig and the raspberry grow large and healthy, and my sense of failure begins to ease.

How good God is to give us different plants that fail or thrive in different seasons and in different climates. Biodiversity. If I had only grown cucumbers this year, the heat would have felled my entire crop. If I had only grown tomatoes, the fear of no harvest might be crippling. It could well be that that this is just a year for other things to grow.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the sane Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, 1 Corinthians 12:4-7.

God is working on me to go out to the garden in expectations of a harvest, in gratitude for what is growing, in praise of His provision. There are green tomatoes on the vine. There is abundant basil. There are blossoms on the pepper plants. It is only mid-July.

I pull some of the weeds that are encroaching on the raspberry bush while the ground is still damp. This I can do. I can keep the weeds from overtaking the plants, even if I can’t keep them out of the garden. I can check the netting for gaps, sprinkle hot sauce around the plants, and try to discourage invaders.

I lift my head and listen to the birds. A small bunny darts from the hedgerow, sees me, and darts back under cover. Bees hover over the clover nearby, and a wasp lands on the pine bark mulch. My yard is alive in the early hours. Soon it will be too hot to spend much time here.

I let the garden, nature, God, speak to my fearful and fretful spirit.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21.

There is a lot of work I can and should do in my garden, but the harvest is ultimately the Lord’s. This is His garden, not mine. I am called to care for His creation and love as He loved, tirelessly, sacrificially, and unselfishly. He is able to accomplish… anything, creation with a word.

My role is to love and serve and look to Him.

Betsy

Netting

I lost a tomato the other day. One day it was on the vine; the next it was gone. Despite the marigolds. Time to take defensive actions.

There’s a wonderful movie, Biggest Little Farm, about a couple who bring natural predators onto their farm to combat threats to their crops. Ducks to combat snails; dogs to combat coyotes; owls to combat gophers. After seven years, their farm is in balance, and they harvest a crop.

I’m not that patient or that eager to invite predators into my yard. Instead, I covered my tomato plants with netting and doused the ground with hot sauce.

Netting is tricky. It catches on everything – sticks, weeds, buttons, watches, glasses. Nick had erected metal poles for the netting, allowing the plants to grow tall under the fabric. Each bolt snags the fine mesh.

Two years ago, most of my tomatoes were stolen by critters, even with the bird netting. Between the marigolds and the hot sauce, I am praying the critters find easier dining. That summer, a dispute with a friend had robbed me of my peace just as the squirrels had robbed the garden. In God’s clever way, He is reminding me once again how I often let circumstances rob me of my peace.

Peace and joy and love are fruits of the Holy Spirit, brought to fruition by His presence in my life. When I let circumstances rob me of His fruit, I am throwing away my past growth and efforts as well as depriving the larger world of His gifts. It may take work, but I need to conscientiously protect the tomatoes in my garden and His fruit in my life.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil…. take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Ephesians 6:10-17.

Our shields can be tricky and our swords awkward. My faith catches on my emotions, my friendships, my concerns. I wonder if I am doing life “right.” Sometimes I wonder if there is a right way, a right side to be on when people disagree. Because people will disagree. Even good-hearted, God-fearing, walking-the-walk Christians.

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2.

The netting I can put over the fruit growing in my life is scripture. Daily immersion in and meditation on the Word of God. Daily prayer and stillness. Giving all my roiling emotions into the Lord’s hands and asking for His guidance.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:34-35.

Jesus’s love for others angered people, even good-hearted, God-fearing, walking-the-walk people. He touched lepers and ate with sinners and spoke to Samaritan women. Am I that loving? Do I love just as Jesus has loved me?

I lost a tomato yesterday. I lost my peace and joy as well. If your garden is suffering as well, join me in protecting the fruit of the Spirit. Join me in learning to love as Jesus loved.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit with in me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me, Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. Psalm 51:10-12.

Love in Christ, Betsy

In Secret

The tall green stalks are brown and falling to the ground. It is too hot, and they are too old to stand tall and green any longer.

This is good news. These dying plants means the garlic bulbs are ready to harvest.

When I planted the cloves last fall, the instructions indicated that they would sleep all winter, start to grow in the spring and be ready for harvest in late summer. I think they were written for a different climate. My garlic grew all winter. Now they have reached maturity.

Our warmer weather has left me with smaller garlic bulbs than might have grown further north, but they have grown. A bulb of four or five cloves for each single clove I buried. And all with very little effort on my part.

I couldn’t even see the growth happening. Unlike the rest of my garden, this garlic grew in secret.

In happens that way in life sometimes. We can’t see what is happening out of sight. What we do see, the tall green stalks, may wither and die. It is not until we uproot the plant that we discover the delicious reward that God has given us in secret.

But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:6.

The growth on my tomatoes is obvious. They are taller, dotted with blossoms, yielding green fruit that is getting larger and lighter by the day. Sometimes life is like that as well. The rewards for our effort seem instantaneous, obvious. Sometimes, God’s Spirit nudges us to action, and when we act, joy erupts. We make that call; the person needed to hear from someone. They are happy; we are happy. Everyone involved is blessed by the presence of God in the little things of life.

But sometimes life is more like the garlic bulbs. It doesn’t look good. It looks like a dying plant. The good news comes in the uprooting.

I pull up the first bulb. The ground releases it easily. The bite of garlic fills my nose, mixed with a hint of wet soil. What a beautiful sight!

Beside it grows the basil, and as I pinch off the maturing leaves, I know pesto in in my future.

My mouth waters in anticipation.

God is planning a marvelous feast for us. Some of the ingredients are bright and beautiful and out in the light for all to see. Like my tomatoes and pepper, they thrive on the sunlight and show their bright colors proudly. Some parts of the feast, like the basil, fill the air with their sweet aroma. And some are being grown in secret, out of sight, waiting for the day when God reveals them.

When I look at my garden, I see the marvelous diversity and inclusiveness of God. He created so many different plants that bless us in so many ways. Some with luscious fruit, some with edible roots, some with tasty leaves. And the best recipes combine them.

I mix the garlic and basil from my garden with the nuts and olive oil from someone else’s garden and add cheese some cow provided. I was given a new food processor for Christmas and the pesto-making is easy. What wonderful gifts! What an amazing example of how the world can work together to produce something marvelous.

The garlic reminds me to never underestimate what God is doing in secret, out of my sight.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish the thing which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:8-11.

Betsy

Faithfulness

Faithfulness dictates that I go out to the garden every morning, whether I feel like it or not. Faithfulness means I pull weeds even though it hurts my hands and wrists and shoulders. Faithfulness leads me to water the garden every day it doesn’t rain, even when I want to be doing something else. Faithfulness leads me daily to carefully rearrange growing branches so that they will be supported.

I do these activities because I have faith that they will lead to healthier, more productive plants. These are the daily little activities that constitute gardening. Sure, there are big activities like fencing and planting and managing the harvest, but these little, daily tasks are what ensure the garden thrives.

How like God to encourage and reward our daily little acts of faithfulness.

Life is full of daily little things that enhance our lives and keep us healthy. Brush your teeth; wash your hands; clean the dishes; wash your clothes. Often these daily little tasks exhaust us – not because they are difficult but because they are tedious and repetitive and endless. Their reward is rarely obvious. Our only motivation is what happens if we don’t do them.

My teeth rot: my family falls sick; roaches and mice infest my kitchen; I’m wearing stained and smelly clothes. The weeds overtake my plants; my cucumbers die from lack of water; the tomato branches break off under the weight of any fruit they grow.

There are consequences to a lack of faithfulness in the small things.

Am I reading God’s Word every day? Am I spending time in quiet prayer with Him? Am I thanking God for all the wonderful things He has gifted to us? Sunshine and rain and friends and family and homes and cars and electricity and food? Am I allowing His Spirit space to grow in me? Am I watering and supporting that growth?

His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.” Matthew 25:21.

Experience and science have long taught us that we adapt to our surroundings. Spouses tend to look like each other after a while; employees dress like their boss; animals evolve camouflaging colors and snouts and beaks for better dining. I wonder if we could adapt to better reflect Jesus if we spent more time with him. If I spent hours with Him every day, would I begin to talk like Him? React like Him? Love like He loves?

My daily treks to the garden, my constant exposure to growing plants, has taught me things that google can’t. Being in the garden every day turns my knowledge into a reality that I can touch and feel and smell. Knowing about gardening is not the same as gardening. Knowing about God is not the same as knowing God.

You have to DO it. Do the little tasks that faithfulness demands. Faithfulness can feel tedious. Faithfulness calls us to action when our emotions prefer inaction. Water the plants, pull the weeds, brush your teeth, wash the dishes, read the Bible, get on your knees. Being faithful in these little things brings us face to face with the world we envision – the fruitful garden, the healthy home, the presence of God’s Spirit.

And as we draw closer, as we spend time on faithful tasks, we begin to embody that vision and move closer to making it real.

And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18.

Brush your teeth today, wash the dishes and thank God for all that He is doing for you. Be faithful and enter into His joy. Look to God, and seeing Him, be transformed into His image.

Betsy

Weeds

Tiny tomatoes dot my plants and blossoms cover my cucumbers, but I feel like a failure.

It’s the weeds. They ring my garden along the fence line and stretch across the cardboard and mulch. These hardy little invaders have burst through the inches of open space between the cardboard and the fence and the landscape timbers. They have overtaken the dying sugar snaps and are threatening the rest of the garden.

How have I let this happen? How did I let weeds overtake my garden?

Should I have tilled? Am I too lazy or weak? Have I spent too much time on other pursuits? Am I a neglectful gardener? Am I simply a bad gardener? Am I a failure?

How can I post a picture of my garden when all anyone will see is my weeds, my weakness?

I am tempted to throw up my hands in defeat.

But I don’t.

I don’t think that is what God wants us to do when the weeds are invading.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:10-11.

I think God wants me to learn how to fight the weeds in my garden, the weeds in my life. He is showing me how sin can creep into my life and threaten to overtake the good fruit He is growing. While I am spending time on other pursuits, when I am feeling tired and weak, in the cracks in my faith, sin is creeping in and stretching across my life.

It would be easy to just throw up my hands in defeat. But I don’t think that is what God wants me to do.

Remember the old adage? The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. I pull on my garden gloves and take a bite. I will have to commit to doing this all summer. By the time I am through the garden, weeds will have reappeared in the area I weeded first. The level of commitment needed to combat the weeds scares me. It looks like too big of a problem. It feels like too big of a commitment. Those thoughts of failure creep back in.

Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may dwell in me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.

Not exactly Instagram ready, all these weeds, all this weakness. Or maybe it is. Maybe admitting my weakness, my failure, allows someone else to admit theirs. At the very least, such admission gives us the space to be less than perfect. The crazy thing is that I still want to put a picture of a beautiful weed-free garden along with this post. But all the pictures of my garden have weeds in them, because my garden has weeds. Maybe every picture of my life reveals weeds as well.

I am committed to weeding a section of the garden every morning. Rain and overnight dew make it easier, allowing the ground to release the weed with less effort on my part. I often think of water as prayer and the metaphor holds for weeds. Prayer certainly makes removing the weeds from my life easier!

Maybe all my battling with weeds is a way of training me for bigger battles. Perhaps these weeds are training me to not give up, to persevere, to trust in God to give me the strength. Because as followers of Jesus, we will face battles with forces stronger than weeds. Perhaps instead of feeling like a failure, I will be grateful for the training.

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

Betsy

Beauty and Grief

The morning sun lights up the cloudless blue sky. Masses of tall trees covered in green leaves fill the horizon. Tidy yards of cut green grass border the bottom of my view. It is a beautiful day. But I sit in my chair and cry.

Five years ago, I spent this day in hospice holding my husband’s hand as he took his last breath. I have relived that moment a million times and I relive it now.

The pain radiates from my heart to my throat to my eyes, blocking the beautiful views out my window.

The trill of birdsong makes me lift my head and open my eyes. It is a beautiful world out there. Nick is enjoying beauty beyond compare in his heavenly home. I am sure he would want me to enjoy the beauty God gives us here on earth.

And the garden is calling.

The plants are growing so rapidly now. Every day they are taller and fuller, and blossoms and fruit appear. Their branches need to be lifted and rested on the supports. Weeds need to be pulled. The June sun is sapping the moisture from the ground, and I need to replenish it. How selfish of me to sit in my chair and cry.

As I have adapted to life without Nick, these days come less and less often, these days when life feels almost pointless without him, but they still come.

God’s Spirit gently reminds me that as much as I loved Nick, he was never the point, the purpose of my life. God is.

And God is with me now just as He was when Nick lived. God put me here for a purpose, and God keeps me here for a purpose.

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. Ephesians 2:10.

I don’t always know what specific good works God has prepared for me, but I know He commands me to love, to share His love with every person I encounter. I admit I have not always done so. I confess I still find this challenging at times. Such a simple command, and yet it sits in opposition to my “me first” mentality. Even now, as I wallow in my chair, it is easier to focus on my pain and my needs then to act in love toward those around me who are hurting and need to sense God’s love.

But God’s call to love one another is enough to get me out of my chair. There are people to call, household chores that need addressing, mail that needs a response. And a garden that needs tending.

I read the scriptures listed for today, spend some time in prayer, and read a short devotional. Then I slip on my garden shoes and head outside.

The sun is shining brightly in the crisp blue sky. Green trees surround my yard, and the babble of the creek sings in the background. Birds fly across the ground and search the green grass for worms. It is a beautiful day.

God loves me. God loves you. With His Spirit’s help and in His name, I love you as well, even if we have never met. What an amazing world God has gifted us to show us how much He loves us – plants and animals and sunshine and rain and beauty all around us.

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. 1 John 3:1.

I am sure my sad days are not over. I will always miss Nick. But God has provided me with a beautiful world, wonderful friends and family, and opportunities to share His love. If you too are sad today, listen for the trill of a bird nearby and lift your eyes to the beauty and love around you.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Pentecost Peas

Christmas may the time of year when we most think about gifts, but right now, this week, is when the children of God celebrate His gifts to us.

Look at the sugar snaps bursting forth from the sap in the vine! Food from nothing, a dried-up seed pod, a patch of dirt, a little water. And God has provided me with crisp, tasty, nutritional goodness, necessary vitamins, pleasing sensations.

And once again these amazing testaments to God’s provision are bursting on the scene at Pentecost.

Pentecost is the Israeli day of celebration after fifty days of thanking God for their home, their crops, their freedom, a period called the Festival of Weeks. The first of their crops were offered to God in thanks.

You shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground from the land that God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose. Then you, along with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and your house. Deuteronomy 26: 2,11.

But Pentecost, the Feast of Shavuot, is also the time when Jewish believers celebrate the gift of God’s law. What an amazing gift His law is! Have you ever had a teacher or a boss who was unclear about what they expected from you? What were they grading you on? Punctuation and spelling? Symbolism and style? How firm was the due date? It can be demoralizing to not know what is expected of you. That is why God’s law is a gift. We know exactly what He expects of us.

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ (Deuteronomy 6:4). This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Leviticus 19:18) On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,” Matthew 22:34-40.

For Christians, Pentecost also celebrates the gift of God’s Spirit to believers. The Spirit of God is an ever-present player in the Old Testament, anointing judges with wisdom and strength, giving prophets dreams and visions, enabling victory against overwhelming odds. Since Jesus’ resurrection and return to heaven, the Spirit of God now comes and resides in the hearts of all believers.

Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far way, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him. Acts 2:28-29.

What an amazing gift! God’s Spirit residing with me, empowering me, enabling me to accomplish what He has set out for me to do, talking with me, comforting me, and leading me into knowledge. That Spirit, like the sap in my sugar snap vine, creates fruit and life and abundance where there was none. Bounty from a dried-up pod, a patch of dirt, and a little water.

I have so much to be thankful for this Pentecost season. Abundance from the earth, direction and guidance, and His enabling Spirit which makes it all possible.

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. John 15:4.

Is the Spirit’s presence in your life bearing fruit that nourishes and refreshes the world? Is love bursting from you like these sugar snaps are bursting from my plants? God has shown us through our gardens that it can happen. God can transform a seed into a fruit, barren ground into a garden. God has told us what He wants to grow in us – love, love for Him and for each other. And God has given us His Spirit to make it happen. What amazing gifts!

Betsy

Ancient Remedies

There is a newish trend coming out of Japan – forest bathing.

It seems the overcrowded, performance-driven Japanese culture has resulted in high blood pressure, anxiety, and nervous disorders. To combat this, doctors have been prescribing forest bathing. The doctor orders the patient to go outside into the woods and soak in nature for thirty minutes. Take deep breaths, smell the wood and rot and flowers, rub your hands along tree bark, dig your toes into the moss and dirt. Instead of planning your next project, making lists of things to do, or replaying past conversations, focus your mind on the beauty around you. Use all your senses to immerse yourself in the woods.

Even as I avoid the cicadas buzzing in the trees and covering the ground, I try to apply a little of this medicine to my life. Daily rain has kept the mowers away and my yard is awash in white clover blossoms. As I inhale deeply, the faint scent of honeysuckle greets me from the hedgerow. The almost-rain humidity leaves a sheen on my arms and dampens the back of my neck.

In C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, the demons bemoan their failure when their target takes a walk in the woods.

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1.

But if the cicadas are keeping you inside today, let me suggest another remedy for relieving stress and anxiety – God bathing.

Non-believers might substitute meditation for God-bathing, and certainly sitting quietly, beathing deeply, will calm your body and reduce stress.

But just as forest bathing is a better cure than meditation, God bathing is better yet.

Stop your daily activities for thirty minutes and sit quietly with God. When you still all the activity in the front of your brain, then the deep-seated causes of unrest can emerge from the recesses. Give this to God. Hand it like a child would hand over a cicada shell. No words are necessary. Your loving Father knows, and He can help.

Read a bit of scripture and let it soak in. Rub your hand along its bark and smell the scent it offers. Put yourself in the scene. Imagine hearing these words for the first time. Hear the murmurs of those around you, sense the sheen rising on your arms and on the back of your neck.

Imagine being in the presence of God. Imagine the heaven of Revelation, the new earth, the celestial bodies, the thousands of martyred worshipers.

Imagine talking with Jesus on a dusty road as you trudge along, weary, and disappointed. Let Him explain the scriptures to you, opening your eyes to all that God has told us about Himself. Does not your heart burn as He reveals Himself to you?

The prescription for forest bathing may be a new thing, but God bathing is an ancient remedy.

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of the scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. Psalm 1:1-3.

Dig your toes into the soil of the scripture and feel what grows there. Take a deep breath of His amazing love that draws you closer and closer, no matter what you have done or been or desired. Sense His arms around you. Feel Him lift the weights from your shoulders and blow a cooling breeze on your sweat-soaked face. Bathe in His love, care, and concern.

Would you consider this your prescription? Spend thirty minutes today God bathing. God can do amazing things in our lives if we give Him the chance.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. John 14:12.

Betsy

Growth

The sugar snaps are growing. The older ones are my height now, the younger ones are chest high. They are reaching out for anything to twirl their tendrils around, constantly pulling themselves upward. They are growing.

God fuels their growth with rain, and I provide water on dry days. They battle the weeds which have sprung up around them, trying to divert their upward growth. Some plants seem to struggle more than others.

I planted these seeds later than usual, so the garden is a few weeks behind my garden last year. The calendar date does not dictate when they blossom; the plants must reach a certain maturity before they produce fruit. My sugar snaps are still growing.

I could be frustrated that I don’t have fruit yet. It is May. But my frustration would not make these plants produce flowers. Seventy days of growth will bring fruit if they get plenty of water and overcome the weeds. Soon, but not today.

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth… James 5:7.

Are you growing? Am I? Are we impatient to bear fruit when God knows we need this time to grow?

Some of you may be taller than me, further along in your maturity. Some of us may be battling invasive weeds which tie us down and hinder our growth. Some of us may be living in dry days; we may need the living water of communion with God before we can continue to grow.

The growing season can seem to last forever. Fear nibbles at the back of my brain, telling me things will never change, the plant will never flower, the fruit will never come. But that is not true.

Just as my toddler grand-twins will one day tie their shoelaces even though they can’t now, so my plants will one day bear sugar snaps, so we will one day bear the fruit God is growing in us.

The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come. Mark 4:26-29.

God is the one growing fruit. As Jesus tells us in John 15, only God can produce His fruit in us; we cannot produce it on our own. We sprout and grow, and we do not even know how. It is not my job to worry about when His fruit will appear. It is my job to stay connected to the vine, stay hydrated with prayer, and overcome the weeds. And to watch for the fruit, to put it to good use once it appears.

I am proud of my growing sugar snaps. They look beautiful to me, reaching out, reaching up, growing taller every day. To think that the dried pods I put in the ground in March have matured into these plants amazes me. God has completely transformed them. Once lifeless, they are now on the cusp of bearing fruit. Isn’t God amazing?

Too often I am so focused on what has not yet happened that I fail to see all that God has already done. He has brought life where there appeared to be none. He does it every day, everywhere. He has brought growth even when we thought it impossible.

Today, I rejoice and give thanks for growth. Won’t you join me?

Let the heavens be glad and let he earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord is King!” Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exalt, and everything in it. I Chronicles 16:31-32.

Amateur Gardener

As I choose seedlings for my summer planting, I am reminded once again of how much of an amateur gardener I am.

Staring at the rows of healthy little green plants, I am amazed at the different fruits and vegetables, the variety of options, the abundance of choices. And this is just one garden center. There are thousands of these centers and millions of these plants.

Serious gardeners, professionals, grew all these seedlings from which I get to choose a few for my garden. Rows of squash varieties, cucumbers and eggplants, shelf after shelf of pepper choices, hundreds of herbs and spice plants, an entire area devoted to tomatoes. Scientists and researchers created hybrid varieties of every plant to maximize various desired attributes such as size, color, germination, heat resistance, taste, seed content, spice level, and the timing of fruit production. The people who developed and grew these plants were serious gardeners.

But as amateur as I may be, I am still a gardener.

Some gardeners strive to keep their harvest organic, grow the largest tomato, or cultivate the pretty heirloom ones. Some gardeners research techniques that replenish the soil or reflect ancient traditions. Some gardeners want their yards on the tours and spend hours making them pristine. Some have agricultural degrees and teach Master Gardening classes. I just want home-grown produce.

As simple as my goals are, I am still a gardener.

If you have one tomato plant in a pot on your balcony, or one flower you have kept alive, you too are a gardener.

Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life. John 5:24.

I am so tempted to compare myself to others; are you as well? There are some much better gardeners out there, and some much “better” Christians. You know the ones – they go about singing praise music all the time and only read uplifting books. They never get angry with their kids or over-imbibe. They spend hours feeding the hungry, visiting prisons, and caring for the poor. They remind me of what an amateur Christian I am.

But as amateur as I may be, I am still a Christian. I believe and I am a witness to God’s amazing love.

And if you have heard His word and truly believe in Him, then you too are a Christian.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.

If you have planted a seed, if you have a tomato plant on your balcony, if you have believed enough to act, then you too are on the path to witnessing to God’s love for the world.

But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. James 1:18.

Because just looking at the rows of plants at the garden center does not make me a gardener. Taking one home and planting it in my yard does. But that is all it takes. I do not have to be a Master Gardener, which requires education, experience, and community service.

I do not have to a minister or a missionary, but I do need to act on my belief in God.

I give you a new commandment that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:34-35.

I may be an amateur, but I can love my neighbor. I can love the person in need. I can respond in love when someone breaks line or insults me. I can love those with whom I disagree.

God’s love, planted and growing inside me, gives me the power to share this love, His love, with others. Let’s not leave the gardening up to the professionals. Join me and we can spread His love over all the earth.

Betsy