The Narrow Way

For days I’ve been trying to sneak away to write down some of this season’s ‘garden tales.’ I don’t know why, short analogies like these can be so profound to me. Then again, I suppose anything God whispers to us feels like that…🤔

“Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.” Isa 65:24

Ground cherries have become a favorite in our garden. Last year I planted them from seed with great results. This year, however, twice I seeded pots with new seed. Nothing grew. Not a single sprout 😰😒 I was frustrated, but resigned myself to the idea that we just wouldn’t have any this year. 😔

Then, while weeding the garden, I noticed some familiar looking ‘weeds.’ They were volunteer ground cherry plants, seeds left in the soil from unharvested fruits last year that had sprouted 😃 God planted them, He grew them. He knew before I did and made provision. 🙌

My God is a God who knows what we need (or sometimes just want) before we even ask. He delivers out of His abundance and goodness. Even when it seems there’s nothing, He can, and often does, make a way.

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This year I wanted to plant sunflowers in our ditch. I didn’t have much time to do it, nor did I really know what I was doing. We tilled the ditch, and per my brother-in-law’s advice, we FILLED the ditch with sunflower seeds from a bulk bag for bird feeding. Since planting, one time we watered them, otherwise they’ve been hands off.

The sunflowers have been a low input venture, especially compared to some of the other items we plant. I think often we equate input level with level of success…if we have to work hard, something will thrive. And it’s not always so. 🤔

I’m being reminded as I think about planting these exactly who God is. He is Almighty. We sometimes do all of the right things (like my ground cherries), and nothing comes of it. Other times we cast seed to the wind with half a prayer and there’s a return on it 🤷‍♀️😂I think this is the case when sowing into people’s lives as well. There are times we invest great effort, and we don’t see a return on it, while other times we deposit a nugget of truth, walk away thinking nothing will happen, and suddenly God breathes on it. And so we scratch our heads until we really learn that we are co-laborers, it doesn’t all depend on us. 👏🙌

“For we are co-laborers with God; you are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Cor 3:9

While we co-labor with God, He really does the heavy lifting. We give some time, small effort, or sacrifice, but He really does the only part that matters–He brings to LIFE–whether tiny garden plants or those dead in their sin. We plant, we water, He gives growth. I think more often than we realize, all God asks is our willingness to scatter seed. If there’s no seed sown, there is no harvest.

As an aside, I firmly believe the earth being in a sowing season, one preceding a great harvest…. Choose to identify yourself with Jesus now. Identify yourself while it’s easy, so people will know who to come to in the coming days…Sow seed wherever you can, this will look different for different people. Give God an opportunity to work with something, it doesn’t have to be polished, He knows how limited we are and can more than make up for our lack. 🙌

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Not all seeds are equal. Some crops require more work, plain and simple. I spend a little extra time each year weeding my onions. I don’t love to weed, mostly I don’t have a lot of time to do it, so it can be frustrating. But I’ve come to find that if I don’t give the onions a little extra care, they are either overcome by weeds or don’t grow up to their potential. It’s hardly worth planting them if I don’t see them through to full size. The same is true of people.

For 17 years I’ve been a born-again believer, and for 17 years I’ve been sharing the Truth of Jesus with people. For 9 years I’ve been gardening “on my own” (I have some help at times, but I’ve slowly become more independent). In 17 years of ministering and 9 years of gardening there is one thing I can say for certain: you never know which will live and which will die.

“So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” 1 Cor 3:7

We like to think we know which are sure things and give them the most attention, but the truth is, we don’t. 🤷‍♀️ The plants surprise me, as do people. I’ve watched some of the strongest squash plants succumb to powdery mildew. I’ve seen people with great faith fade and fall away. In each case, all it took was the tiniest speck of disease (sin) to get established, and slowly but surely, it leads to their end. If you spend enough time gardening (or tending to people), you can sometimes see it coming, but that doesn’t mean you can stop it. 😔 Often, even if we try to intervene, the best we can do is pray and surrender the crop to the Lord. Some make it…some don’t…😕

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The weeds. Usually we Christian gardeners associate them with sin. The analogy is powerful…how you need to “get to the root” to stop them or they grow back. This lesson burns in you the longer you garden. But this year, I thought differently. This year when gardening, I admired the relentlessness of the weeds. Chop off their tops, they grow back. Pour mulch on them, they grow up from underneath. Dig them up and miss a portion of the root, it returns. Nothing aside from total elimination stops a weed from growing….Imagine if our faith was like that?

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Gardening gives life to so many spiritual Truths. I don’t have time to detail or expound upon them all, but I hope these speak to you as they did me. I wish I could share the moment of impact, when God speaks them to me as I’m looking at a plant or ripping up a weed…it’s always so vivid. Gardening is about so much more than having a fresh food source, gardening teaches us about the Great Gardener, the One who brings life to things (seeds) left in darkness. The One who is in charge of the harvest….So many things come to life in the garden…If you’re reading this and are a Christian, remember, part of why He saved you is that you might co-labor with Him in calling seeds to life.

“…that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

As always, thanks for stopping by.