Lessons From My Garden

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
~C. Austin Miles

One of my earliest memories is of sitting on our back stairs outside while my Mom was working in her garden. It was a beautiful clear day and a bumblebee landed beside me. I must have thought that he was a friendly chap from all the storybooks that my Mom read to me when I was younger, because I reached out to pet the little fellow. He surprised me with a sting and I learned to admire that particular creature from a distance! :-) Happily, that solitary sting did not deter me from being outside or from loving flowers and plants. :-) My Mom gave me and my sisters a deep love for gardening. I feel close to the Lord outside in His creation . . . I love the smell of the soil and the feeling of sifting and refreshing and creating order and peace and beauty in the garden. I am dirty and sweaty all day long and mulch falls out of my hair at night, but I love it :-). It is fascinating to me that the Lord began His relationship with men and women in a garden--it was a place of communion and beauty and order and peace. It was the place of perfect fellowship with God until that union was broken by sin and chaos. There is something of peace in a garden that reminds us of that initial communion with God and that leads us to that place again though the blood of Christ. 

Lately, I've been spending a LOT of time outside! :-) I love being outdoors with my two children, hanging up laundry and raking and planting and weed whacking ..  . . and WEEDING! :-) Oh, so much weeding--but it's all worth it . . . ;-)

As part of our first year of homeschooling, we planted a vegetable garden. It was (is) a lot of work, but oh, it is so much fun! We are learning new things daily about how to take care of the plants and that has been exciting and challenging for us. It's not perfect, we still need to finish the fence, and I only planted two rows of corn instead of four by accident, but such is life.  :-) It's brought us a lot of joy through hard work. :-) 

I like vegetables, but I've always been partial to flowers and herbs; they just draw my heart in some deep, inexplicable way. I love the way that the Lord allows them to bloom at all different times to bring beauty to every part of the spring and summer, from the daffodils in the early spring, to the grandeur of the iris, and then the sweet sentimental happiness of the daisy, the cone flower, and the black-eyed Susan as the summer wears on. Did you know that all of the individual flowers and fruit trees also feed countless species of birds? The coneflowers are a treat for the goldfinch; the hummingbird drinks from the fluted Hosta cup and the old-fashioned hollyhock. The Robin and Cedar Waxwing enjoy berries from various bushes and trees--mulberry and serviceberry, cherry and raspberry. Nature relies upon the Lord in every way to feed it and to nourish it. The Lord continually amazes me in this, especially here in the country where it is so observable in every perfect way. Even in the winter, the animals and birds rely upon the "leftovers" to get them through--their "manna" from the Lord to sustain them through the harsh winter months (and the winters are harsh around here). 

The Lord constantly speaks His lessons to my heart here and these are some of things that He has impressed upon me lately. . . 

Columbine-there is still some white paint on it from when we painted our fence--the kids helped! :-)

 Never despise meager beginnings. This is a quote from one of my favorite movies, Love Comes Softly. The Lord is in the seemingly little things and this is so evident in the garden. The tiny seed that is planted yields a magnificent harvest. The "little things" of watering, weeding, and caring for plants and flowers produce beauty and grace. And it's so important to be faithful and consistent in them. 

He is able to bring the dead back to life. I thought that I had lost my Hostas over the past winter. They were all uprooted in a construction project and piled in a huge mountain of dirt. I am not a huge fan of their waxy "look" but I love the way that they draw tiny hummingbirds to my garden. As I said, I thought that I had lost these flowers, but as the pile of dirt was slowly being removed in the spring, we noticed little Hosta plants springing up in the pile! We removed them and re-planted them. The spiritual lesson that the Lord placed on my heart was that He is able to restore even those things which seem dead, lost, and hopeless. He is the God of resurrection and hope even in situations that seem utterly hopeless.

Hostas, hostas everywhere! :-)

Don't judge by the outward appearance. Some of the "ugliest" plants give the most wonderful produce! :-) Rhubarb, for example, is not the prettiest plant, but so many delicious things can be made from it. Isn't this so in life? The Lord often uses those who don't "look" promising on the outside to do His greatest work. Truly, man looks on the outside, but the Lord judges the heart. 

Protect the things that are precious. I adore the little chipmunks that gather in my yard and the sweet, peppy ground squirrels that visit daily, but they love to dig . . . and dig . . . and dig! That's how the Lord made them--so I asked my husband to put chicken wire over the zinnias that we were growing  . . . it was easy to do and allowed the flowers to grow without being disturbed. And I can still maintain my friendship with the little creatures--the best of both worlds ;-). Truly, how important it is to preserve and protect--to the best of our ability, by the grace of God--to protect ourselves from the influence of sin, to protect our children from worldly influences as much as we are able, to protect the weak and defenseless, to preserve that which is precious. And may our Lord give us eyes to see the things that are precious. 

Little hands can be taught to work :-). Including little children in our tasks enriches them--and us--they teach us to slow down, they teach us to stop and talk about what we are doing, they minister Christ to us in their simple, innocent, never-tiring way. We assume that when children are tiny, they are incapable of working alongside of us--oh, how watching the Amish and their children around here has proven that assumption so wrong! Include little children in your daily tasks--take breaks in-between, but let them come alongside of you in some of the tasks that you do--don't just leave them to play on their own all the time. They need you--and you will find that you need them . . . Below is a picture of some of the vegetables that my children and sweet niece and nephew helped me to weed around! It was so much fun to work together, even in the strong heat! 

If He cares for the sparrow, how much more for His children? The sweetness of the birds who eat the seeds that my Mom puts out every day always fill me with joy. The Lord constantly uses these little creatures to remind me not to worry and fret but to place my hope and trust in His love. 

There is grace in quietness and solitude when the quietness leads to communion with Christ. One of my favorite times to be out in the garden is in the early morning before my children wake up. The Lord speaks to me in the quietness and stillness and it is worth it to wake up early to meet with Him there. When our lives become too busy and we become overwhelmed, "pressed," and hurried (even with "good" things) we lose that sense of His voice and presence that is so vital to our joy and hope. Take time in the quietness, especially in the early morning when you are not too tired, to meet with your Lord and Savior. 

It's not finished till He's finished . . . don't judge the ending from the beginning.  A lesson that the Lord spoke to my spirit this past spring especially as it related to my mothering was to press on even when I feel discouraged or don't see immediate results. This is true with seeds and flowers and it is true in other aspects of life. Perhaps we feel that our children aren't responding to our efforts of love or discipline at times, or we just feel weary in the day to day "grind," but press on--the fruit will come when we persevere--and one never knows how the Lord will work in any given situation when we sincerely wait upon Him in hope and do the best that we can with what we have been entrusted with. 

These are some of the ways that the Lord has been speaking to my heart lately; how about you, dear friends? 

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