The real gardener

Playing in the dirt is one of my favorite past times.  No, I don’t mean gardening because that would indicate I actually had some sense and direction in the care of green living things, on the contrary, I do not.  Like most people, I know a plant needs water, more or less depending on the species of the plant.  It also needs sunlight, again more or less depending.  It also needs fertile soil and high, low or in between ph levels,  once again, depending on its species.

I have tried to read magazines, books, and articles about the “how too’s” of gardening.  I have checked out the when, where and how to place these fragile living beauties. I have researched design styles, trimming back, thinning out and all the other techniques to create a lush garden.  I have tried picture books, Google and interviewing wise friends, but,  I failed, big time.  I have no patience to read slowly and thoroughly enough to understand and recall what I am reading.  I forget what I have been instructed to do and  I water when its convenient to me, not when the sun is hiding like I am supposed to do.  If a plant is leggy or ugly, I cut it way down or pull it out…I don’t have the patience or skills to nurture it back to the beauty it was meant to be.  We have gorgeous purple bearded lilies surrounding our deck.  Awwe, to be surrounded by such a reflection of God’s creativity.  But once they are spent, I hate the ugly mess they leave and threaten them with making their next home in our yard waste bag.  As with these and my other green victims, I love a plant when it is beautiful and hate it when it starts to fade…what a fickle and unfaithful “gardener” I am!

This lack of my own  character and steadfastness in the world of creation reminds me once again how faithful and persistent is the love of our Father.  He loves and watches over me when I am beautiful in his site, and he still loves and watches over me when I am quite the opposite.

Psalms 139 is a reminder that he knows everything about us, “before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely”.   That we can not hide from Him (“if I make my bed in the depths you are there,  that he “hems me in”, protects me.  Jesus spoke in the New Testament about pruning his followers so they can bear more fruit. He knows exactly what I need to be brought into my life to cultivate growth.  It may be different with each season, but he knows and provides perfectly.  He also knows when I need to get trimmed back, pruned so I can branch out and grow deeper roots of faith.  I can’t say I love that part, but he does it in a perfect way, in the perfect time with perfect love.  He shades me when the difficult times hit and they hit hard sometimes. (Isaiah 25:4…you shall be a shade from the heat.  I write, when they hit because, let’s just admit something, life on this planet is not a walk in the park.  We are surrounded by failed personalities, including our own, who cause pain and catastrophes all too often.  Because he loves us,  He uses fellow believers who are sharing this journey to shade us, he uses his word that provides protection, reassurance, and guidance. He uses nature to remind us of His presence and power.  Psalm 139 also reminds us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”.  What a Faithful father we have.

and in return…

I ask myself, how can I be a better gardener?  Nope, there is very little help for me in the successful gardening of our terra firma.  What I mean is how can I help cultivate those around me?  Can I help with providing protection and shade from the elements when times and circumstances are painful or dangerous?  Do I need to have courage and be a part of the pruning process by ” telling the truth in love”?  Do I need to be the “stake” when my church family needs a little propping up?  Whatever it is that I am commissioned to do,  I must be tending my own soul garden.  Without my own strong, deep roots, I will be unable to provide shade or any other kind of support.  Without standing firm through my own storms, how can I possibly come alongside those who are facing winds of gale force and noisy thunder?  ‘

I pray you too will join me in cultivating your faith.  That you plant yourself near the refreshing, Holy water of God “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” Psalms 1:1-3

Shalom,

Karen