How Does Your Garden Grow?

Yesterday, I wrote about the beautiful treasures that I have inherited in my backyard.

I have found such joy in watching God's creativity come alive each year that we've lived in this house.

However, I learned the very first year that we were here that I was in way over my head.

With an afternoon ahead of me, I set to weed the large raised bed in the middle of our backyard. We only had one daughter at the time and she played in the yard as her daddy mowed. The sun was shining and all was right in the world. It felt great to be outside and I soaked up the sunshine. I appreciated the dirt under my nails and felt I had really accomplished something at the end of the day.

When I put up my tools and bagged up the weeds I had pulled I only lacked a small section of the bed from completing my task. I would've finished, but my daughter needed fed and I was ready to call it a day. I had every intention of finishing the job in the next day or two.

Well, the next day or two came and went. I never made it back out to the garden to finish the job I had begun. I was so glad I didn't. In the next couple of weeks I was dismayed to find that many of the "weeds" I had pulled, were not "weeds" at all!

The section of the garden I never "got" to, continued to grow and, eventually bloom. In my ignorance I had uprooted some of the cone flowers I didn't even know grew in that garden. I realized then how valuable my gardening books and the Internet could be. I turned to my neighbor, my grandmother and my mother for their advice as I sought assistance from someone more knowledgeable than myself.

Spiritually, all too often I forge ahead, assuming I know how to handle a situation or what to do in certain circumstances. I only realize later that I've missed blessings because I didn't wait on the Lord's counsel. I didn't consult His book. I didn't ask for help from Him or His people.

The garden of my life needs the influence and the expertise of the Master. I cannot do it on my own.