9/29/2009

On Father's Day this year our thoughtful kids gave me the most wonderful gift, a gift that keeps on giving in several ways. They planted seeds. Vegetables and fruit. In our mushroom soil garden.

First, they (Dan, Lena and Lena's husband Zak) cleared our small garden of weeds. Next, they planted seeds for three types of vegetables and one fruit: 3 cucumber plants, 2 yellow squash plants, 1 tomato, 1 eggplant, and 1 blueberry bush. Throughout the summer all the vegetable plants grew an abundance of large, rich green leaves, and yielded healthy produce many times over. (The deer couldn't wait till the blueberries grew, they just nibbled the leaves and stems down to a well-trimmed memory.) Now Lena loves to cook, and she inspired me to create several dishes, and helped me make eggplant parmesan and we enjoyed dining on this cooperative venture between heaven and earth, father, daughter, and sons, receiving God's abundance and using the creative spark He gave us to add our own family feast.

If you've never seen a yellow squash plant, it's quite a surprise: from the smallest of seeds sprout a profusion of large green leaves and bright yellow flowers, under which the squash grows at a rapid rate (at least in the mushroom soil in our garden), sometimes an inch or more a day. They're most palatable when twisted from the vine after they've reached a length of 6 inches. And more grow, and more, and again more all throughout the summer. If you ever wanted to see God's abundance in action, this produces a very clear, very tangible image!

But nothing grows (but weeds) until you plant it.

The seeds come in a small package, and the surface of the package does not show a photograph of seeds, but of the yellow squash, or cucumbers, or eggplant, it will produce. The seed company is wise to sell you the image of the final fruit.

For when you invest the seeds into the soil, you know with all certaintly that they will grow from this miniscule size into these amazing flowering plants that bear much fruit. All we need to do is ensure they receive enough water, and the rest is all taken care of by God.

Our job is but to keep the image of the finished produce clear before our mind's eye while we continue to cultivate the plant. Then we see the seed germinate, the leaves grow, and the plant flower and bear fruit.

Isn't that true of any other venture where we know we will receive God's abundance, if we but cultivate the seeds He has given us? We may begin with but the smallest seed of thought. The critical next step is to keep the image of the final product clear before us, such that we can already imagine our joy and gratitude at receiving the final fruit, all of which really comes from God. To ensure its growth all we really need to do is keep away the weeds of distracting thoughts that might otherwise choke it off, and cultivate it with the same loving care and anticipation of God's loving abundance that we experience as we tend our garden.

The rich soil of our imagination is a gift from God. The hands which carry out the actions which cultivate it are gifts from Him. And the final abundance we enjoy are gifts from Him.

In the past in our house I confess that several plants have died from neglect. I forget to water them, and they wither. And then I look out the window at our vegetable garden and see plants thriving, with the heaven's rains proof that God still cares for them even when I forget.

Maybe I need to trust God's care more. Maybe I need to get out of my head and house more, and move my own creative thoughts out of the withering hothouse of my own brain and into the fresh air of God's loving care.

If our garden is any sign, then it's a no-brainer: let's let God. Praise and thank the Lord for his almightly loving power and steadfast care.