Tag: jesus

Possibilities

A new year, a blank page, a barren garden – anything can happen. The possibilities are endless.

Will I repeat what I did last year or will I plant something new and different this year?

There have been years when it took all my effort just to repeat in some form what was done before. There have been years when I started the year tired and fearful of the days ahead. (A few years I started hungover…) There were years I dreaded what might fill the pages of my calendar, change I didn’t want but couldn’t stop from happening.

But this year, this new calendar, this barren garden speaks to me of possibilities.

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Revelation 21:5.

As Christians, we don’t need to wait for a new year, a blank calendar page, or some indefinable point in the future. Today, in this moment, before the clock ticks the end of the year, God’s Holy Spirit is transforming us.

I am not the person I used to be. I am not who I was as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult, as a mother, last year, a few months ago, or even yesterday.

In my garden, garlic bulbs are forming underground, rocks are migrating to the surface, and nutrients are replenishing my soil. Just as the soil is being made new in my barren garden, so my life being made new every morning, every evening. The possibilities are endless.

No matter what I have planted in the past, I can plant something different this year. Or plant the same things in a new and better way. I can choose to keep the plants and methods that work and change the ones that don’t.

What a gift! Have you made bad decisions in the past? Today is a new day. Do you have regrets? Fears? Doubts? Has guilt or shame or doubt left you crippled and unable to move forward?

Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat, and walk.” John 5:8.

Leave that place of limited possibilities. God has healed you. God has given you a new day, a new year, a barren garden. Go and plant new seeds, grow new things, become a new person, healed and able to move forward through the grace of God.

So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away, see, everything has become new! All of this is through God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 17-18.

Happy New Year, friend. Happy new day, happy new garden.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Enthusiasm

I thought my cucumbers were enthusiastic plants, climbing their supports and stretching outside the fence, but they are mild in comparison to this raspberry plant!

In her second year, my raspberry plant has already birthed three new plants in the cracks in the cardboard covering. She is almost six feet tall. I sense I need to cut her back, hem her in, trim off the excess.

I have seen articles and studies on pruning, but I skim right past them. Tomato plants and cucumbers don’t require pruning. Although it’s possible they could be better if I did prune them…

Pruning is an important part of growing perennial plants, but I am new to perennials and have much to learn. Seeing this raspberry bush take over my garden and reach into the yard makes me want to learn. This can’t be best for the plant, best for the berry harvest, or best for me.

And yet, her growth is thrilling. Her enthusiasm for growth is contagious. I want to grow with enthusiasm and burst out all over the place!

My mother used to tamp down my enthusiasm on a regular basis, to the point where I felt like a wild pony trapped in a corral. But she understood. She had been a cheerleader in her youth; enthusiasm runs in my genes. Perhaps she was trying to prune me.

He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes to make it bear more fruit. John 15:2.

I am tempted to use this as my guide for how to prune. I am sure Jesus’ listeners at the time knew how to prune; they were grape and olive growers. They were being asked to apply their gardening knowledge to spiritual growth. Perhaps that is what the Holy Spirit would like me to do – learn how to prune this raspberry bush, when and how and to what extent, and apply that knowledge to my spiritual life.

Perhaps the goal should not be excessive growth that spreads out everywhere, but a contained healthy plant that produces much fruit. My smaller tomato plants are covered in green tomatoes, while this huge raspberry produces few berries.

And her uncontained growth is casting a shadow on my fig tree, growing straight and true beside her.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4.

There’s a chance I, like my raspberry plant, have focused on the wrong thing – expansion verses fruit. There’s the possibility that my naturally enthusiastic self has spread beyond my boundaries and overshadowed another.

The raspberry bush cannot prune herself. It’s as if her enthusiastic nature can’t be contained. And I don’t want to stifle her; I just want her focused more on fruit than expansion. And that will allow my fig tree to flourish as well.

As for pruning my own enthusiasm, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will do this if we let him. He will prune us so that we will bear more fruit.

So, I will learn what I need to know about pruning and try to redirect my raspberry plant’s focus. Find the best way to encourage productive growth. Cut out the excess that her enthusiasm has rendered. I need to let the Holy Spirit do the same with me.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. John 16:13.

The first thing I need to do is learn. The main thing I need to do is listen. The Master Gardener, the creator of all gardens, the creator of all life, knows what I need to do.

Love in Christ, Betsy