A Lesson in Gardening....

I am having a lot of fun with my container gardening this year, although the heavy rains we have had took a toll on some of the plants. I have learned so many things as I try to keep my plants alive....and not just about gardening. Some of those lessons have been so encouraging, while others have been very humbling. Lately I have been thinking about a few of the lessons gardening has been used to teach me.

When we moved from Texas to central Florida for a time, no one could have mistaken me for being any kind of gardener. I had no skills in that department whatsoever. Quite the opposite actually. I had a bit of a black thumb. Friends knew if they wanted their plants to survive; never ask me to watch over theirs when they went out of town. Oh, how this was all about to change!

It didn't take long before the gorgeous Florida weather and beautiful foliage had me longing to put on some gardening gloves and dig in the dirt. The gardening bug had bitten. I planted every kind of shrub, flower, and herb I could get my hands on including dozens of rose bushes. I also cared for the flowers, plants, and bushes that were there when we moved in. Oh, how everything grew, but they didn't just grow; they exploded. One side of our house was like Jurassic Park, the plants were gigantic! It felt like my plants were on growth hormones or something! They were so huge and beautiful! 

I was so proud of my gardening. But more than that, I was so proud of myself! I was really getting this gardening thing. I was obviously a natural. Now I was certain I could tell others what they should do with their plants because I had such a knack for gardening. Did I mention I was so proud of my garden....and myself? Somehow the memories of my track record in Texas had faded.

The time came to move back to Texas. I was so looking forward to the things I would plant when we got back there. When that first spring rolled around, I was so ready for it. I commenced to planting....and everything commenced to dying. Hmmm....I must have gotten some bad plants. I planted another batch. They died too. What was going on?! This made no sense. I was a natural at this. I was good at this. It didn't take me long to figure out my black thumb was back. Actually, it had never left me. I was NOT the brilliant gardener I had convinced myself I was after all. 

After reflecting on the whole gardening experience,  the truth hit me square in the face. My success with gardening in Florida had not been because of me. It was many things. Greg's grandparents who we had bought the house from had come before us planting many things which they had cared for and nurtured along until they were strong and thriving in their environment. For years Grandpa had the laundry water running from a tube in the laundry room out into the little garden on the side of the house....the Jurassic side. The laundry water had left things in the soil that were amazing for plant growth. Not only this, our land had wonderful soil for growing anything. It was a wonderful mix of sand and beautiful soil. Oh, and we lived in sunny central Florida. The regular divinely-provided rains, beautiful climate, all the work Grandma and Grandpa had done before we had ever moved in all added up to perfection for beautiful gardening. It was NOT because of me!

My successful gardening was because of those who had come before me...those who had prepared the soil, watered and planted seeds and plants. It was because of God's wonderful sunshine, refreshing showers, and blessing of climate that had made the plants flourish and the soil ready for my arrival.
My part had been my willingness to put some seeds, plants, and bushes in the already prepared soil. My part had been watering a plant that had already been planted before I came a long. My part had been pulling some weeds that were threatening to choke out new growth on old plants. My part was being willing to get my hands a bit dirty.

In John 4:37-38 Jesus says, "....One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."

How many times in my walk with the Lord have I felt like an outcome was the result of something I had done? How many times has someone planted a seed and I have come along and very sloppily dumped some water on the seed or been there when the fruit was at the perfect ripeness for picking? How many times have opportunities...treasure-moments....been placed in my path so that I might be allowed to be part of the joy of something wonderful, not of my doing or making; and yet I have made it about me? I might say to myself, "That went well, Virginia!!", when it should be, "Thank you, Father, for the work you just did! Thank you for allowing me to be a part of it!"

Whether it is big or small, we miss out on such blessings when we do this.  We have also taken something that does not belong to us. We have taken glory belonging to God.

I love how the Holy Spirit so lovingly and gently uses the things in our day to day lives...like gardening....to bring us to the rich truths we need to learn or be reminded of about God. It may be a truth we know in theory, but He puts it in a practical, relatable way that can get through our sometimes very hard heads. I am so grateful for this, even in those times when it is oftentimes painful. These lessons and truths are so needed if we want to continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ Jesus. These lessons bring us into closer relationship with God the only ONE who deserves all power, all glory, and all honor!!!!!

Thank you, Father, for your lessons! Thank you for your love! Thank you for working on me and in me. Please make me a willing, teachable vessel that can be used by you for your glory!!


And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him Who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"  Revelation 5:13

  

Heart Lessons

In February the boys and I took a trip to Alberta to spend some time with Mum and Dad.  It was a precious time with both of them that I did not want to end; one I will never forget. It is so filled with precious times and memories with each of them.

It was so wonderful visiting with Mum over endless cups of coffee (I was the coffee fiend, not her...not a surprise to anyone who knows me). We had some great conversations covering family, faith, politics, parenting, and everything in between. It was a sweet time.

It was precious spending time with Dad; talking to him, singing to him (albeit very badly.....just ask all the people up and down his corridor), reading scripture to him, praying with him, and loving on him. It was heartbreaking when it came time to leave that final day.

As we traveled back,  I spent a good deal of the time enjoying my boys chatting away in the backseat to one another...and to me at times, listening to Chuck Missler expound on the book of Leviticus, and recollecting my journey to see loved ones.

It was not until I arrived home that I allowed myself to really begin to process the emotional side of my trip. I was unpacking, thinking about things, talking to the Lord and crying. I felt such deep grief down to my core. It was like waves of sadness crashing over me. I felt an almost a physical pain from the sorrow. My grief came from so much lost time through the years....so many lost opportunities for relationship...so many unfulfilled times of precious sharing and affection...so many unspoken conversations.

The reasons for the lost times are varied. To put it simply, it was the geography of our lives: sometimes literal, sometimes spiritual and sometimes emotional. It was at times the general busyness of life or sometimes just taking the time we did have for granted. Whatever the case, I grieved the lost times. I grieved knowing I could never get that time back. I will never in this lifetime have all the conversations I would love to have with my dad. I could see and thank the Lord for our relationship and for all the times we had, but that did not make me less sad....so sad to not have gotten the fullest relationship I could have had with my dad.

 I was telling the Lord all of this....telling Him I knew that someday it would be different...someday we would have eternity for visits and relationship, but that didn't make me grieve less about now. I told Him I was really grieving the lost times. I grieved all the times of missed relationship....missed visits....missed sharing.....grieved that it could have been so different...if only things had been different...if only I had taken more time.....

It was in the midst of me telling Him this that I heard a sweet, gentle voice say, "How do you think I feel?"

Words fail me when I try to describe the impact those words had on me. The magnitude and their meaning is still resounding in my spirit. Who understands relationships better than our precious Lord? Who understands the grief of missed opportunities for His children to know Him more...to love Him more...to lean on Him more? Who better understands what it feels like to have lost relationship because of separation...because of rebellion on the part of one of His children? Who better understands being rejected by someone He loves and so desperately wants to be His own?

Our Lord, not only understands this, He is the creator of relationship. He made us for relationship. He made us to desire and seek relationships. He demonstrated His desire for personal relationship as He daily walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. He wanted to spend time with them. He visited with them. He taught them. He loved them.

In the garden that relationship with God was broken. But it did not change His plan or desire for relationship with us. On the Cross relationship with God was restored for those who accept His free gift of eternal life through the blood of Jesus.  The restored relationship required the most precious, most innocent, most Beloved to be given on the Cross, to become sin for us because we have sinned. He loves us that much..that deeply.

Because He loves us, He made a way for a  redeemed and restored relationship. But when we accept Him as Lord of our lives, do we embrace this relationship? Do we seek to spend time with Him? Or do we take this precious relationship for granted? This relationship that cost us nothing, but cost Him everything.

I so often take it for granted. Sometimes I allow the busyness of life...the emotional...the spiritual....the nonsense...to get in the way of the most important, most precious, most necessary of all relationships in my life....and it hurts Him. He desires me to give Him the emotional....the spiritual....the nonsense. He wants to carry those burdens for me. This relationship impacts every aspect of my being, my life, and how I impact or affect those around me. It grieves the Lord when I am distant. It breaks His heart when I am far from Him. He misses me. He wants to spend time with me. He loves me beyond anything I can imagine.

My prayer is I will cherish and draw ever closer in my relationship with my heavenly Father. I pray I will cherish Him above all else in my life and because of relationship with Him,  I will cherish those in my life all the more. I pray I do not take any of the precious relationships He has given me for granted. I pray I will value them like the priceless treasures they are. I am so thankful for the precious ones He has placed in my life. I praise Him for giving me the gift of my children so I can so much better understand Him. I pray for deep, authentic relationships with all those I hold dear in my life.

I praise God that as I draw nearer to Him, He promises to draw nearer to me. That is a promise that makes my heart ache with longing for closer, deeper relationship.  I long to know Him more, love Him more,  and reflect Him more from the very core of my being. I pray His Holy Spirit will work in me and through me for His glory. I pray I will not forget or take lightly the heart lesson He has given me. I pray for wonderful, beautiful, precious relationships.