FOR HIS DISPLAY

Despite the fact that my sweet dad planted a garden every year that I can remember, I was not born with a green thumb. I've always loved flowers and fresh veggies, but I can only recall one summer when I was very successful at this. Not because I wasn't able to, okay so maybe sometimes a lot of times, my plants just died,  but truly, I just wasn't willing to put the effort into the process of gardening.

It's not an easy one, but there's something about the pleasure it produces when effort is put forth into something that brings satisfaction and ultimately great beauty. I have had the "bug" again lately, so after Bible study yesterday morning, I went off to Lowe's in search of something to add to the lawn. It was an absolutely beautiful day, more like summer than spring, and I wanted to be OUTSIDE and productive! Gardening seemed the perfect solution. After feeling initially overwhelmed in the gardening department (Holy cow! There's a lot to choose!), I finally settled on some gerber daisies, vinca, zinnias, petunias, shasta daisies, and various sunflowers. All stated they grew well in full sun which my front yard gets, and seemed reasonably easy to maintain.  I also had some perennial bulbs to plant with hopes that maybe they would spring forth at some later dates. These included daylillies, tulips, and lily of the valley. We shall see!

After guzzling a huge glass of tea to prepare for the hot sun, I got to work. Our home is brand new, so the beds hadn't been formed that long, but I was surprised how weeds had already gotten down beneath some of the mulch. Some of the ground was rock hard. It took lots of digging and toiling up the soil to prepare it for a planting. Right away, this became so much more of a spiritual lesson for me in this labor. I could sense God showing me glimpses of His work in me. Sometimes, He tills us up to prepare us for what He wants to plant in us. I was reminded through the Word this morning about the Scripture in Luke where Jesus tells Simon, "Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. " I think I always read this before as the enemy wanting to sift only Peter, but the passage says "all of you." I was reminded of a previous study where it was told that God will not allow us to be sifted unless there is something that needs to be sifted. If the soil is hard, dry, and not properly prepared, the seed cannot be planted. Now, dirt doesn't have feelings, but man when it's a person being sifted, it's tough. It can hurt. It can be very painful. However, our pain is never in vain, if we think of what can come out of it. "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Rom. 8:18 As I dug into the soil, some of these weeds were hidden down deep. I had to reach down and pull hard to get them up. Weeds are stubborn. They like to stay rooted and hidden, just like sin in our lives and strongholds that we've clung to. Sometimes they're there so long, we don't even realize they're weeds. They just look like another plant. If the soil hadn't been turned upside down, you'd never even notice them. Wrestling with God does that. He turns everything upside down, so we can notice sin patterns and the things that keep us from a planting He wants to do. Things that keep us from being fertile soil and eventually fruitful.

Next, it was time to plant. Some things I planted were already potted. I just had to put them into the ground. Others were seeds. Let me just say that I was so shocked at how small some of these seeds were! I could barely get them out of the package without some spilling. It was amazing to think that something so small could grow into something so big and beautiful! "For truly I say to you, 'If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,'and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." Matt. 17:20. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had great friends visiting us over the Easter weekend. We were in a Lebanese market/deli one evening, and for the first time ever I saw a mustard seed. Talk about a object lesson. I don't remember if I knew how tiny a mustard seed really is. Wow!

With each planting, I thought about the potential that this seed held. When planted in good soil, and tended to daily, there was the promise of a life springing forth! So it is with us.

"Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.....As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” Matt. 13:8, 23

Now, it's time to tend to the garden. Making sure the weeds stay out, there's sufficient water, and lots of patience. However, I can't provide everything these seeds need to grow. Only God gives them the light that is necessary. I don't have the power to make the Sun shine, but He does. You see, no matter what we do or don't do, only He has the power to make it grow. And so it is with us. God calls and equips each of us. We can't sit and do nothing. In the end, it isn't us doing it though. It's Him doing it in and through us. If this garden grows, I won't be able to take credit for it. I didn't create the seed, make it grow, or provide all that was necessary to do it. I simply got to participate in part of it, but ultimately, God grows it! He just allowed me the pleasure of being part of the process. 

"What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his labor. For we are God's coworkers. You are God's field, God's building." 1 Cor. 3:5-9

In the end, the only glory will be for Him! I anticipate seeing this glory when the flowers bloom and praising Him for the lessons learned in the process. Allow Him to turn your life upside down, plant the seed, and feed your soul. In the end, we will each be a display of His splendor for the world to see and know a loving Gardener who can till up the hardest soils of life, and turn them into beautiful things. If God has done that for you today, go take some "flowers" to someone else who needs to see and know Him. It's what you were created and planted to do.

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor." Isa. 61:1-3