Heart Soul Mind Strength

“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth” Genesis 1:28

Garden plants want to grow. Needing only someone to feed, water, and situate them to capture sunlight, they grow quickly and excessively like maniacs. Tiny sprouts hasten to become a thick tangled mess. Not allowing air to flow through the dense growth, the exuberant growers set themselves up for stunted growth, fungal infection, and diminished productivity. As much as they need water, sunlight, and soil, plants also need someone willing to cut the excessive parts of their growth and willing to feed them compost regularly.

The problem is not that the plants are doing it wrong following the programming in their DNA. The problem is that garden plants were not meant to grow without the human gardener to whom God assigned their care. God planted the very first garden and assigned humans to work in it, according to Genesis 2:15. Tending the garden is partly about setting conditions for growth, including feeding the plants refuse, and partly about setting limits and parameters to that growth by judiciously cutting off plant parts.

The gardener is responsible for recognizing the healthy parameters of plant growth within the garden and prune accordingly. The requirements of pruning fulfill the gardener’s ultimate desire for a healthy productive garden and the plants’ needs for proper conditions for success. Obviously, from the posts I have shared so far, I believe that we can learn from God through observing, participating in, and receiving lessons while gardening.

While I’m attending to my little garden, I often think of how God wants me to grow abundantly, like the plants in my garden, and receive His care as the gardener of my whole existence. His care includes uncomfortable elements like transplanting me to new areas, feeding me what seems like stinky circumstances, and cutting whole branches off of me that I had spent energy to grow. Gardening is all new to me, but I see the wisdom of God’s work in my life as I look back at how He set conditions and limitations and surrounded me with uncomfortable circumstances.

Seeds in soil with moisture need nothing more to sprout. A seed is a packet with a blueprint, energy, and indominable will to reproduce itself. For my garden, I began to place seeds in soil in March, April and May, indoors. My zone often uses Mother’s Day as a guide for when it is safe to plant seeds outside. The seed starting trays lived on a shelf until the tiny green sprouts showed themselves; at that point, I moved the trays to the east-facing dining room where they could catch morning sunlight. I started too many seeds with the goal of having enough viable plants remaining at planting time, but I ended up with more plants than my garden could hold. I did not expect so many of the seeds to sprout. I did not know that my sprouts would grow “leggy” in their seed trays waiting for me to put them in better sunlight. The plants were ready before the garden was safe and ready for them.

I am grateful that God is a very experienced gardener of human souls. He knows exactly how to set up conditions for us to thrive. We just need to be willing to receive the preparations in our lives, which may sometimes come in the form of unpleasant circumstances. Through faith, these circumstances ultimately teach us to dig deeper, reach higher, and grow more resilient if we do not give up. My garden plants have shown me many examples of overcoming even my inexperienced care and astonishing me with their persistent growth. If they can keep growing under my care, surely “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13.)

God beamed His Light, His rain, His preparation, and the Good Seed of His gospel into my life from the very beginning. I am thankful that God placed me where I would hear His Word over and over again. My parents were dedicated seekers, longing to be exactly what God wanted them to be. They were willing to let go of acceptance by others, possessions, comforts, and any goals related to earthly accumulation of wealth instead of heavenly investments.

Dad sought and studied, examined and wrestled with examples he found, and spent many years in frustration with himself and in periods of heavy discouragement. In some cases, when a mentor or and institution of Christian origin turned out to be a disappointment, he experienced disillusionment. His wrestling planted a seed in me of deep distrust of human religiosity. It seemed like human organizations often eventually stray from focusing on spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, focusing instead on self-preservation and self-replication. Essentially, there are places with many Good Seeds and also many tares growing together, and it can be confusing and frustrating even to a mature Chrisian. Of course, as a young child I was too new to the world to distinguish a healthy example of growing in Christ from an unhealthy example. I could not tell if an idea I picked up from child-like observations of people who professed to believe in Jesus was the Good Seed or if it was, perhaps, a tare.

• God created everything, is holy, and loves us
  • “I have loved you with an everlasting love” Jeremiah 31:3
• all of humanity turned away from God and are unable to be with God by our own efforts
  • “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23
• God sent Jesus to do the work we could not do to make us clean again by taking on Himself our sins and removing them by His blood shed when He died on the cross
  • “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
  • “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24)
• Jesus died, was buried, and resurrected from death by the Power of God and offers this same new life to those who put their trust in Him. They will grow a desire to live life His way, the way of love and forgiveness – with the help of the Holy Spirit.
  • “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Acts 2:21
  • “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins” Ephesians 2:1
• by God’s grace through faith in Jesus all people have an invitation to reunite with God in this life and to live with Him forever
  • “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

John 3:16 summarizes the whole gospel in one Bible verse: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.”

This gospel is the good seed, which brings hope to every human soul. Our lives and purpose can be salvaged from the death and decay of the world around us. God created us to fulfill a purpose that enriches our lives, blesses and feeds the world, and brings glory to God all through the same process. It is an amazing story of God’s redemption as He woos us back to Himself at great personal cost. By heaping our sins and death upon Himself, dying like a seed buried in the ground, and transforming decay into new life by the power of His resurrection, He gives us the gift of forgiveness by grace when we turn our hearts to trust in Him. When we allow His Light to shine into our lives, when we listen as His voice calls our name and believe who He is and what He says to us and about us, the same power that removed our sins and raised Him up from death begins to work inside of us.

When God is welcomed to make changes in our hearts, this is the Kingdom of God come among us. It grows from a place inside us, not from outside appearances. It changes death into life. This reminds me of what plants eat and how it comes to be.

Plants feed on materials like manure and decaying plant matter. Materials that are despised and rejected by most people because they are decaying and often stink. This dead material and excrement are transformed into compost by a society of microscopic servants, invisible to us. Once the dead stuff is transformed, it provides vital sustenance for the plants, which feed the animals and the humans. I see this as an object lesson for me.

When it seems like God is heaping stinky circumstances around me in life, people around may keep their distance. People tend to either try to remove the unpleasant circumstances from me or remove themselves from near me. Sometimes people genuinely care and want to help, but the Lord was not foolish to add manure or ashes or dead leaves around me in the form of trials, losses, or emotional hurt. He knows that, with the power of Christ at work in me, these will become food for growth. Looking back, I can give thanks to God in every circumstance.

Ultimately, the fruitfulness of the garden is for the nourishment of the hungry generation after generation. God put a strong determination in plants to grow and produce the next generation’s seeds. My garden provided plenty of examples of abundant growth.

Many examples of the wonderful, exuberant growth of plants have presented themselves to me this year. Dill and cilantro, zucchini, basil, the critter garden, and my forgotten sunflower.

The mammoth dill I planted flowered quickly and attracted these beautiful black swallowtail butterflies. By mid-July I have several happy caterpillars enjoying my parsley plants once I harvested the dill. I harvested dozens of seed heads of dill, dried them, and stored them away for future use.

Cilantro grew up to maturity and made tons of seeds faster than I could use much of it. Cilantro smells exponentially larger than the plant. I dried and saved a goodly amount of coriander for future use. Next year I shall have to plant new seeds every few weeks to keep having fresh yummy leaves.

Zucchini was such a quick germinator, a beautiful little sprout, and a prolific producer.

After a few weeks, I came out to find an absolutely gigantic collection of leaves! The packet said “Dwarf” in the name of the zucchini, which makes me wonder how big a non-dwarf zucchini would get. These overshadowed the entire section, leaning over the herbs and the tomatoes. In one month, I got ten zucchini, mostly from just one plant.

My garden beds were full and I had more to plant. Fortunately, my neighbor gave me an edging tool, designed to cut a precise edge to the garden. I used it like a shovel and a plough to cut out the wild things growing in a spot near the garbage bin fence. I put a row of watermelon and a row of cantaloupe way too close together, a few herbs, and later would add some of my excessive tomato plants. I planted, watered, and then left for a week. I call this my “Critter Garden.”

As you can see in the pictures, the plants are growing in a crowded and tangled mess! I planted this garden with wild creatures who inhabit this area in mind. I thinned out the cantaloupe and watermelon plants, but the four hills with two plants each has grown so much that I can’t see where one ends and the other begins.

Another example of the prolific nature of plants is basil. Basil sprouts were the little ones early on in May. Starting a bit slower, the basil seemed to wait its turn to burst forth with abandon. All of a sudden one day, I came out to a waving sea of basil leaves, fragrant and shapely. I needed to use up a bunch of basil and quickly. I looked up recipes for pesto and decided to give it a try. I harvested the leaves straight into a bucket of water to prevent them from wilting in the hot sun. It is a pleasurable experience to wash a bucket full of fresh basil.

I can not complete this story of incredible, exuberant plant growth without mentioning my approximately 12′ tall sunflower. I don’t know exactly when I put that seed into the ground because I had given up on it ever growing. I continued planting things and completely forgot about it. I planted the rest of the sunflowers in the garden bed first and transplanted them once they seemed strong enough to keep growing. When I was transplanting, I notice there were two sunflower sprouts already established! I love how gigantic the leaves are, how thick the stalk is, and I eagerly anticipate that gorgeous bloom!

the sunflower I forgot I planted

God provides the conditions we need. He is the sunlight and the rain that grows our souls to be healthy, beautiful, and fruitful. My job is to follow the blueprint of the new seed Jesus Christ planted in me, to be like Him, and to reproduce those fruits and seeds in and for the world.

Praise the Lord for all His marvelous creations! Praise Him for His love and wisdom to give us ways to work alongside Him!