The Gardener

What a full weekend. A lot of time spent with the husband…this is a good thing. We even had a night away…a very good thing. We are hoping to get chances to do this more often.

The weather was very cold for the last few days. I’m not necessarily against winter but there is a certain point where the frigid crispness of the air gets me daydreaming about spring. That and the fact that the seed catalogs have been arriving in the mail. Oh how I miss my gardens. There is the memory of spring in Wisconsin waiting for the right moment when the ground is just dry enough to start working up the beds. Digging my hands into the dirt and bringing up a fistful of the darkest soil and bringing it to my nose to breath in deep of its earthy aroma. You can’t bottle that. I was always so eager to get to planting. I think the satisfaction in gardening comes from feeling more of an active participant in life and creation. Maybe that is why the gardening metaphor is used so much in the bible. It is all laid out there for you. The preparing of the soil, the seeding, caring, cultivating and then the glorious harvest. God is a gardener.

Here in Pennsylvania we have too much clay and rock where we live to be able to have a REAL garden. I did manage to get a raspberry patch started. This will be its third summer this year and I’m hoping for a bit more fruit then we have experienced in the last two years. The bushes are struggling for territory. Our neighbor planted bamboo and as anyone familiar with bamboo knows that stuff encroaches everywhere. Regardless, we continue to tend to that little patch weeding and pruning the vines in hopes it will grow strong and fruitful in spite of the attack of the bamboo. WOW…..this is exactly why this is used in the bible. If I’m willing to put the kind of love and effort into my gardens imagine what the Father is doing and feeling for His.

I think most of us wish we didn’t have to go through the pruning stage but it is crucial to good growth. I know when I have to be with pruning shears in hand to work on the raspberries, trees, roses, what have you, that I feel hesitant and sad that I have to so drastically prune the dear plant as I do… but because I do the bush comes back fuller, healthier and more fruitful. If I did not prune.. the bush would become spindly, sickly and eventually die. Isn’t that much the same as it would be for us?

I’ve experienced many pruning’s in my life and I am certain there will be more. But I’ve been around long enough to know that God is right there with me through it all and in the end my growth is stronger because I am rooted firmly in His love and care.

(The picture is of our little raspberry patch with the encroaching bamboo taken a few days ago. Spring will be here soon. )