My best friend said “if you want to grow closer to God, start a garden”.
And I think she was right.
I have loved gardening. I think it’s in large part because I love food, and it’s basically assisting God in producing food in my backyard.
I love that it’s an excuse to walk outside when chaos and loudness are erupting to “check my garden”.
I love that when the kids have nothing to do, I can always make them water the garden.
I love how being amidst vines and leaves provides solace in a tumultuous world.
Today though, I loved how after hearing hard news, about something we were hopeful that God was doing, I got to escape to my garden.
And as I walked among the flowers full of budding possibility, I was reminded that not all of them bear fruit. Some serve their purpose and whither and drop.
Some of them burst full with expectation and fruit, only to not quite get enough of something they need to succeed.
And yet others, slowly… timidly, burst forth in beautiful bloom, and then steadily develop into ripe fruit.
And the vine, produces all of them.
I didn’t get the answers I wanted, and the door I wanted to walk through was closed. A flower full of possibility that dropped to the ground.
And as I’m mourning that, I also know there are many other flowers, capable of producing fruit waiting to burst forth.
So I wait. Water, and tend.
Over and over my garden reminds me there is a God greater than I, who has greater plans than I, and who knows how to tend garden much better than I. I am living proof of it.