Tag: spiritual fruit

Potential

I hold seeds in my hand. Within them there is the potential to be tall green plants covered in white blossoms and dangling pea pods.

Potential. Growing up, I hated that word. Embedded in the compliment, I heard the complaint. I could do something, but I wasn’t. If I just apply myself, work a little harder, invest a little more, I could become the person they thought I could and should be. But obviously I wasn’t doing that, and I wasn’t the person they wanted me to be. I was, instead, a slacker.

My sense was that they were looking at a sugar snap seed and wanting me to produce tomatoes. Perhaps that is unfair. Perhaps they were just looking at a seed and wanting it to grow.

Here’s the lesson of the seed, though. Me wanting the seed to grow, and it having the potential to grow, does not make it grow. I cannot make that happen. The seed cannot make that happen. Only God can.

We have roles to play. If the seed is not good, or not a sugar snap seed, it will not produce sugar snaps. If I do not put it in the ground and water it, it will not transform. If I do not support the vine’s growth or protect it from predators, the harvest will be damaged. The garden is a cooperative effort between God and me, between nature and the seed.

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.

The seed is not enough, even if it has potential. And my desire for the seed cannot transform it into what I want it to be. God, through the amazing architecture of nature, has embedded a nucleus of a fruit-bearing plant in this seed. He alone gives it the power to become all that it has the potential to be.

God has embedded the nucleus of a fruit-bearing soul in me and you. We can help or hinder the transformation of that seed into a healthy, loving, spirit-filled life, but we can’t make it happen. Not by the will of man.

We need to put that seed of ourselves into the hands of God. He alone knows what we have the potential to be.

And this seed is one of hundreds. I will plant all of them. Hopefully, all of them will be transformed into fruit-bearing vines. Often, when we talk about God’s will for our lives, our purpose, we think we have a unique role. We don’t want to be like everyone else. We want to be special. That is pride, my friend. While every snowflake is unique, it takes thousands of snowflakes to carpet the ground in white.

A garden succeeds when multiple plants bring forth the same fruit.

What would our world look like if hundreds or thousands of us stood together and were loving and kind and peaceful? What if wide swaths of us were patient and gentle and joyful?

The Holy Spirit can produce that fruit in us. That is our true potential. We have been given the power to be children of God. God wants us to be a beautiful garden of healthy trees planted beside the river, bearing fruit continuously, and healing the nations (Revelations 22).

I think that is what God sees when he holds the seed of us in His hands. He sees our potential.

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

Love in Christ, Betsy

Preparation

I took advantage of our brief window of warm weather Saturday to prepare the garden for sugar snaps. These lovely plants grow too tall for the tomato cages. Laden with fruit, they bend and fall to the ground instead of reaching for the sun.

Once the peas are planted and the cages set over them, I can attach the strings to the cages and let the vines climb them. Of course, I may need the ladder to pick the fruit! Right now it looks like some weird decoration gone wrong.

I may need more strings when the plants are growing. It’s difficult to anticipate, even after having grown sugar snaps for years. There’s always an insecurity that I have done too little or wasted my time doing something not needed at all.

The pictures in the catalogue seduced me again and I ordered lavender plants for the front of my house. When Nick was alive to tend to the vegetables, I tended to the flowers in front of the house. Now that I am tending the vegetables, the flower garden has become rather drab. I may have overcommitted myself (again!), but I needed to order the sugar snap seeds and once I was on the site…  If you give a gardener a seed packet, they’re going to want a root ball.

There are steps that need to happen now in preparation for a garden that will be planted later. There is a garden that needs to be planted in order to have home grown vegetables and blooming flowers later.

A garden, like life, is not instantaneous. To be successful, you need to plan, and you need to prepare. This is a simple truth most of us understand. We learned it by taking tests in elementary school. We learned it on costume day and picture day.

Do we know this about our spiritual journey?

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom, Five of them were foolish and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with the lamps. Matthew 25:1-4.

The wise ones were prepared. They had brought flasks of oil with them. They had strung a trellis for the vines to climb. They had bought the seeds and plants. They had memorized the scriptures. They had learned to hear the still small voice of God.

Are you prepared to meet your maker? The question may make us smirk and roll our eyes, but the question is a real one. Are you? Are you prepared?

What does that even mean to you?

For me, it means that I am letting His Spirit review how I am spending my time. Am I reading the Word? Memorizing scripture? Learning His voice? If I sense the Spirit leading me to do something, am I doing it? Have I apologized to the people I know I have offended?

I can’t do this once. I must do it every day. Every day, I must spend time in prayer and let the Spirit guide me. Everyday I need to top off my oil reserves with some scripture. Everyday, I must visualize my garden growing and prepare for what it needs to thrive.

Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this, if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. Matthew 24:42-44.

Join me in taking advantage of today to prepare.

Love in Christ, Betsy

February Plans

It’s February – time to plan the garden!

The dampness makes the air chillier than I expected. My shoes sink in the soggy earth, and I think of Irish bogs and Louisiana swamps. It feels like January in the South, but I know the temperatures are rising, the sun is staying visible longer, and soon I will need to plant sugar snaps.

I am planting them early (in February) this year because I want to harvest some before I leave town for two weeks in May. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. If the ground is frozen in a few weeks, I will have to wait; get someone else to harvest the peas.

I am working on a better support system for my sugar snap plants. I plan on using a hybrid system of tomato cages, which prevent the vines from attaching to the fence, and a string trellis, which allows them to grow taller without falling over. I have the poles Nick erected years ago. Now I just need to climb a ladder and attach some twine. Once the ground is less soggy. The ladder would sink, and I would fall today. Maybe later in the week, and before I plant the seeds.

The next question is whether to leave the cardboard or pull it up and use weed cloth where I plant the seeds. Supposedly the cardboard will deteriorate over time, but it hasn’t yet. Nick just let the weeds grow with the peas, but I find that unappealing. The cloth works well, but doesn’t reach under the landscape timbers, thus the cardboard, which does. So much planning!

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Luke 14:28.

Am I thinking this much about growing in my faith? That is what Jesus is talking about in this verse. The one before it makes that clear:

Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27.

Whoever is not willing to prepare the garden and plant the seeds will not have sugar snaps. Whoever does not control the weeds and support the vines cannot expect a healthy harvest. I am willing to do these things for my garden; am I willing to do them for my faith?

Do I go to the church my friends attend? The one with the music I like? Do I prefer the minister who makes me feel good about myself? Is my relationship with God based on what I can get out of it?

Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” John 6:26.

Am I following Christ for what he can do for me, or am I willing to put in the work to let his Spirit grow eternal fruit in me?

Am I scheduling time to prepare for God’s presence in my life? Am I planning time to study the Bible, pray with others, pray in my closet alone with God?

Have I planned for support? Not just friends who will listen, but friends that will help me grow tall. Friends that will not let me attach to the earthbound fence but encourage me to grow upward. Am I praying for those friends, seeking out such groups, making the investment of time needed to connect to them?

Do I have a plan to keep worldly worries at bay? Or am I going to let the weeds overtake me?

There is joy and a little trepidation in making these plans, making this commitment. I could fail. It could be too hard. Certainly, there are easier paths. But there is nothing like a fresh sugar snap picked from the vine. There is nothing like the love and joy and peace that only comes from following Jesus.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. John 6:27.

Won’t you join me in planning?

Love in Christ, Betsy

Unexpected Harvest

I arrived back home from my trip late at night. It was too dark to see what had transpired in my yard while I was away. Storms had ravaged areas to the east; family members still had no power. I live in a flood plain, had the creek overflowed? Flooding waters had destroyed my garden in the past, bending the fencing, floating the landscape timbers, uprooting plants. What would the morning light show?

Tomatoes! My one yellow tomato plant is laden with them. Three separate red tomato plants bear fruit. These amazing plants, which brought me nothing in the summer months, are bringing me red and yellow tomatoes in October!

What an unexpected harvest.

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

As if God wanted to remind me that it is He, not I, who produces tomatoes. I may have turned off the soaker system, but He brings rain. I may have determined it too late in the year, but He brings heat and sunshine. I may have prepared my sugar snap garden for spring, but He is still at work among the tomatoes.

What a joy to have a tomato sandwich, to share this abundance with my friends, to savor the gifts of the garden.

As so many of us fret and worry about international conflicts, the looming election, declining church attendance, shifting cultural norms, political uncertainty, I encourage you to join me in praising God for the unexpected harvests He is producing in our lives.

Has someone been kind to you? Has a stranger helped you? Have you helped a stranger? Has God enriched your life with friends, with shelter, with aromatic scents and flavorful tastes? My guess is that God has prepared a surprise harvest for you as He prepared one for me. We may not see it immediately. It may be dark outside. We may be too tired right now to look. But in the light of day, what a gift greets us.

In fact, what a gift greets us each time we turn our eyes from the problems surrounding us and focus instead on God, on Jesus, on His Spirit’s presence in our lives. The problems are there, and we are called to care for our neighbors, share their burdens, love justice, feed the hungry and provide shelter and food for those in need. We are called to work in the garden. But instead of focusing on our inevitable inability to solve these problems, we can rejoice in God’s presence amid them. We can give thanks for each little tomato He grows.

I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world! John 16:33.

Take a moment today to look for where God is blessing you today. Lift your eyes and look for those ripe tomatoes. See the blessings of friends, or food, or comfort. Understand the gift of being needed, even when it’s challenging. Embrace the gift of rest when it is offered. God is producing an amazing harvest in our lives. Often an unexpected harvest. He invites us to share in the feast of the harvest, to join him at table, to share in His joy. Won’t you join Him?

Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. Revelation 3:20.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Beautiful!

The air is damp and cool. The outstretched arm of a far-away hurricane has left droplets on my table, dew on my grass, moisture in the air. Far from the raging winds and flooding rains, my yard soaks up these precious sprinkles like the gifts they are.

The birds are noisy this morning. They have found fresh pools of water and are telling their friends. Seeds are plentiful, and light breezes make the flying easy. A mockingbird sits on my garden fence and beckons me, calling my attention to what he wants to show me.

Ripe tomatoes. On a dying plant.

This dear plant is not using her limited resources to make her leaves green and supple, or even to make her stems straight and strong. She is putting all her energy into producing fruit that will benefit others. What a beautiful picture of the Christian life!

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.

Selfish ambition and conceit seem ingrained in my DNA. Perhaps they are – a gift from Eve. Certainly, our culture rewards it. Perhaps mankind has always rewarded it. Success is often defined as achieving your ambitions. But what if my ambition is to serve your interests instead of my own? What does that look like? Does it look like my dying tomato plants?

We all know someone who operates in near obscurity bringing meals to the elderly, clothes to the homeless, Bibles to prisoners. We know that sweet friend that gives tirelessly and without complaint, who is always there to support others, who shies away from all recognition.

This is the example Jesus sets for us. Go the extra mile. Turn the other cheek. Repay evil with kindness. Love one another. Empty yourself and let God’s Spirit fill you. Lay down your life.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. John 15:12-14.

This little tomato plant is laying down her life, giving her last efforts, to produce these beautiful tomatoes, to bless me with her gifts. It is so ingrained in her to do this that we rarely credited her for this altruistic behavior. Would that the same could be said about me.

There are moments when we get to witness this beautiful behavior in others. Last week was the anniversary of 9-11. There were many such stories from that day – beautiful self-sacrifice in the face of unspeakable horror. People putting the interests of others ahead of their own interests; people laying down their lives to help others.

God has put that tiny imprint of Himself in us. With the Spirit’s help, we can encourage His imprint to grow in us until we look and act more like Him. Jesus has shown us the way. Jesus is the way.

What a beautiful morning for sharing what God is growing in my life with you. Refreshing rains, cooling temperatures, gentle breezes. Far away a storm is raging. As I enjoy this peaceful moment, I wonder if I can share this generous gift of tomatoes with someone facing strong winds and flooding waters. Perhaps with you.

Thank you, beautiful friends, for sharing your time with me.

Love in Christ, Betsy

September Tomatoes

I went out of town for a week and guess what greeted me on my return? September Tomatoes.

The plant is well into old age. Some branches are brown and wilted. Most of her neighbor plants have died already. But look! Tomatoes!

This little plant amazes me. She is still working hard to produce fruit, to share her vitality with the world, to provide for others. She has not called it quits just because some of her neighbors have. It may sound silly to be impressed by a tomato plant, but I am. More accurately, I am impressed by how God is continuing to produce fruit in her.

Do you think God is teaching us something in this?

What is considered “past our prime” is changing. And not just because I am aging! A generation or two ago, a seventy-year-old person was old. Now there are seventy- and eighty-year-olds who are very active and vibrant. They travel the world, take yoga and Pilates, publish poetry books, care for their grandkids, find romance, and volunteer extensively.

The righteous flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap, showing that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Psalm 92:12-15.

Of course, not all of us live into our seventies and eighties. Some of us are gathered to God much earlier in life. Most of my tomato plants have already died. Not because they were unrighteous. Being right with God does not guarantee us a long life, but it does promise us a life of bearing fruit for Him, an abundant life.

I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11.

My eyes brighten, my lips push up my cheeks, a laugh burbles from my mouth. Joy. In this beautiful, simple thing. Hope. For myself, for others, for situations that feel hopeless. It’s not too late. As long as your feet are planted in the rich soil of God’s word, as long as the life-giving water of prayer flows, as long as the Son shines, there is joy and hope and love.

God is so good.

I have a favor to ask. If you have bought my new book Garden Devotions, thank you! If you liked it, please leave a review on Amazon. This is how they decide which books to recommend to browsing shoppers. The space to leave a review of the book is a long scroll down the page, but it is there at the bottom. If you would like to order the book it is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and through the link provided in the menu at the top of this page.

This book feels like the green tomatoes on my plants. It’s never to late for God to bear new fruit in your life. The evidence in here, right before me. God plants a seed; we nurture it in His word and prayer; He produces fruit; that fruit is available to nourish others. Simple and amazing.

Thank you for joining me in the garden. I am so glad that my gardening days are not over just because it’s September.

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Peppers

September has arrived and my garden is showing its fall colors!

I see the brown of the dead and dying plants, but also the vibrant hues of the bell peppers, red and orange and yellow.

I am so grateful for these hardy plants that withstood the summer heat and are still growing in my garden. They remind me that God has a time and a season for all fruit.

I love the sugar snaps that come in the spring, encouraging me to keep the garden going. I love the new fruit emerging on the vines and stalks. I love the garlic and basil, the cucumbers and tomatoes that grow throughout the summer. And I love these peppers who transition me into autumn.

It is a beautiful day. Morning clouds have dissipated, and a clear blue sky stretches from the tops of trees to green lawns. The birds call to each other and those pesky squirrels scamper across the yard. I pull some weeds and cut some basil. The fragrant scents fill my senses. What a blessing to spend just a few minutes everyday soaking in God’s gifts in nature.

For what can be know about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. Romans 1:19-20.

Nature constantly reminds me of God’s creativity and His love of beauty. So many different plants and trees and flowers and blossoms and fruits and seeds. All with their own seasons and habitats and needs. The details of a flower petal, the variety of fruits, the interconnectivity of living things – they all bear witness to a creator who far exceeds our limited capabilities. And yet this same God cares enough to give us a variety of tastes and smells and colors, perhaps just for enjoyment, perhaps also for His own.

The skies proclaim His glory but this little patch of garden in my backyard does, too. It has persevered through unseasonal heat and unusual cool. Some of it has faded, some of it has died, and some lives on, still producing, still growing, still healthy.

There are some former interests that are fading in my life. There are some that have died. But others continue, even thrive, producing new and varied fruit. I have done no needlepoint this year, but I published a book. I have yet to harvest a tomato, but I have perfected a pesto recipe. I have thriving fig and raspberry plants. My garlic was successful enough to encourage me to plant again this fall.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land I will show you.” Genesis 121:1.

God has not asked me to leave my country or my kindred, but He has led me to some new places, some new interests, some new avocations. He has shown me new things. He has grown peppers of various colors in the September of my life.

Even more, God is teaching me how to continue to grow, continue to learn, continue to produce even in the autumn of my life. He has taught me that the garden can produce even in the winter. Perhaps I will be able to as well.

What a marvelous God we have! What a blessing that He shows us His eternal power and divine nature in the things He has made, even the simple things like red and orange and yellow bell peppers.

If you missed it – I have published a book, Garden Devotions, which can be ordered through Barnes and Nobles, Amazon, or the link found in the menu at the top of this page. If you are willing, leave a review! Many thanks.

Love in Christ, Betsy

No Harvest

I tell myself to persevere, but I am tempted to give up. Predators have stolen my tomatoes once again, despite the bird netting, despite the fence, despite the marigolds, despite the hot sauce. My harvest basket remains empty and despair creeps in.

Why did I ever think I could grow tomatoes? Nick could grow them. We had surplus tomatoes every year. We gave them away to anyone who would take them. I have not harvested any this year except the little cherry ones. I recognize I should be grateful for these little gems. Just as I was grateful for my one cucumber last week.

I should focus on my abundant basil, the peppers growing larger every day, the success of the sugar snaps and garlic earlier. I have so much to be thankful for, why does the lack of large red tomatoes depress me?

The growing season isn’t even over. My tomato plants are still green. They still have blossoms and little green tomatoes. I can redouble my efforts to protect them from whoever is stealing them, but I have lost any expectation of a ripe tomato.

Sometimes, things just don’t turn out like we wanted them to, expected them to.

I’ve been digging deep into the story of Joseph from Genesis. God gave him a dream of leadership, then his brothers sold him into a foreign country as a slave. Talk about life not living up to your expectations! Perhaps I am projecting his imagined despair on my garden troubles. Certainly, the absence of red tomatoes pales in comparison.

But the question remains the same. How do we, how do I, respond?

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4.

And the only way my endurance will grow to have its full effect is if I endure things. Like a barren garden. Because a life without tomatoes is nothing compared to a life without Christ. I must take this challenge and learn from it, grow from it, endure it, give thanks for it even.

This is difficult because I don’t yet know what exactly I am supposed to be learning, if in fact I am supposed to be learning anything at all. Perhaps to not expect to succeed at everything? Perhaps to be grateful for what I do have instead of focusing on what I don’t? Perhaps to learn to persevere, endure in the face of failure?

When anger and condemnation arise in me do I consider myself a failure as a follower of Christ? When I see others falling short of a bountiful crop of spiritual fruit, do I doubt their motives, their commitment, their faith? I still have a garden, even if others have tomatoes and I do not. I am still a gardener. Tomatoes are still growing in my garden. I am just not getting to harvest them. They are not benefiting me personally. How vain to consider it loss if I do not benefit. Isn’t God concerned with all His creation?

Perhaps the fruit you are bearing isn’t benefiting you either. Perhaps God is growing it in you to benefit someone else. Perhaps that is the purpose of all the fruit we bear.

Or He may just be teaching me to endure. If Christ is our model and the perfect reflection of God, consider how much He endured – abandonment, torture, crucifixion, death. God has endured humanity’s failure, betrayal, resistance, refusal to believe and obey. He endures our fruitlessness to this day.

God has not given up on me or you or anyone else in the world. I will not give up on my garden. I will love it and care for it and tend to it. And I will thank God for teaching me to endure.

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some would consider slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Rain

As I step out the door the air meets me like a blanket, thick and heavy. Just moving through the dense atmosphere causes the molecules to turn to water on my arms. It’s going to rain. Any minute the humidity will increase one more percent and the water will become too heavy for the air and clouds to hold.

I walk quickly, since I am not earthy enough to garden in the rain. A cucumber has been slowly growing on my dying vines. Every day I check its thickness, its color, its length, and pray no animal has taken it in the night. It is still there. Stubby but turning light. I pick it, amazed and grateful that my cucumber vines have put forth such a grand effort in their dying days.

Perhaps the coming rains will bring new life to this old vine. Perhaps the rain will cool the ground and air and make life easier for these precious plants. Perhaps not. This is God’s call. I don’t control the weather.

My tomatoes are recovering from their previous attack. The netting seems to be working for now. Each plant has small green orbs sucking in moisture and nutrients through the branches. Soon rain will supplement the city water I send them through the soaker hose. Hopefully the rain will last long enough to fill the underground reservoirs, to bring the grass in the yard back to life, to bring the music back to my creek.

The rain starts by the time I get to my peppers. They are healthy and green, bearing tiny fruit. When the peppers turn vibrant red and orange and yellow, I will pick them. Such hardy warriors.

Unwilling to stand in the rain, I scan the basil, the raspberry, and the fig from afar. I should harvest more basil soon, but not today. The fruit plants look healthy. No doubt this rain will help them as well.

I turn my face for a moment up to the sky and feel the gentle drops, grateful for it bringing life, grateful for my cucumber.

This is not a storm, blown in by strong winds and darks clouds in a sunny sky. This is one big cloud filling the sky and reaching as low as my yard. There is no wind so I am hoping the cloud will stay and soak my garden, my yard, the earth with water for hours. Perhaps even cool us off a bit, although that is a lot to ask for in late July.

This is just life. I tend the garden. Some seasons are hard on the garden, some seasons are hard on the gardener. God sends heat. God sends rain. It is only through Him, His life-giving, life-sustaining Spirit, that anything grows at all.

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. I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5.

Apart from Christ, apart from God, I can do nothing. I can’t grow; I can’t bear fruit. Even the fruit growing in my garden is beyond my control. What then is my role as a gardener? As a follower of Christ, a believer?

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. John 15:7.

Lord, thank you for the rain. May it help the garden bear fruit. Thank you for the rain in my life. May it help me bear fruit for you, fruit that glorifies you.

And this is my prayer for each of you as well. May God grow His fruit in your life.

Love in Christ, Betsy

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