How Does Your Garden Grow?

Last year I finally had the opportunity to attempt something I've wanted to do for many years but had never done before...a backyard garden.  Although it was very small (just a 3' x 5' area), I had so much fun everytime I would go out and find another tomato or a new pepper ready to be harvested. 

This year I decided to be a little more daring and expand not only the size of the garden, but also the variety of produce and herbs.  Who knows what I'll do next year.  Before it's over, my entire backyard might be a garden!

Every time I go in my backyard, I am amazed at the growth I can physically see taking place in the plants.  The formation of peppers on the bell pepper plants, tomatoes already forming on the tomato plants, the incredibly rapid growth of the potato plants (I can't keep up with them).

I wonder if our Heavenly Father has just as much excitement when He sees our lives producing fruit. He has given us as His children one very important job to do while we are here on this earth.  To carry on His great commission to reach the lost world.  And the tools He has given us to accomplish this task are found in the Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control).  As we cultivate and water these gifts through prayer and studying the Word, the fruit our life produces will be a very visable witness to the world that God is love and that He loves them.  Now that's a garden worth tending!

1 Colosians 1: 9-14 -For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption,the forgiveness of sins.

Before I go, I thought I'd share pictures of my garden as of today.  I'll try to post again later with updated pictures as it continues to grow.

                         My baby peach tree we planted last year.

The first peach (and it's not supposed to produce for another year)

 Not to be outdone, this branch has 10 peaches on it.

                This is the main garden (minus potatoes and garlic)

                                           Cucumber

                                             Hot Peppers

                                    Greenbeans.  My favorites.

                        Look at those beautiful bean plants grow!

     The first tomatoes of the season.

Basil (Can anyone say "pesto"? Mmmm...)

Potatoes

(I just covered them yesterday and they're already popping out again!)

The grapevine is growing wildly!

Is that a cluster of grapes I see?

Bell Peppers

Cilantro

Garlic anyone?

Chives (they're just waiting for those wonderful potatoes to bake)

Precious Memories

There are certain things in the past that I would choose to forget and leave in the past.  Mistakes, regrets, hurts.  But on the other hand, there are some things from the past that I pray I will never forget.  Best friends, great music, fried bread and coca-cola.

In 1980 after the untimely death of my mom, I went to live with a precious family that took me in as one of their own.  I didn't know it at the time, but thirty years later now, I look back and see how God so graciously orchestrated this very tender, broken and incredibly special time in my life.  He took a seemingly hopeless situation (I was 17 years old and my mom had been killed in a tragic bus accident) and through the love of this family and my precious best friend, He brought restoration and grace to a broken-hearted teenager.  My friend has told me on more than one occasion that I saved her life.  But, the truth is that God used her and her family to save mine.  While the pain of my mother's death is a memory that I don't like to remember, the result of her death orchestrated some of the dearest and most special memories of my life.

Last week, I had the opportunity to walk into that house again after over 25 years and was overwhelmed with a flood of emotions and memories as I revisited every room.  I could hear us lying in bed talking late into the night; I saw her brother banging tennis balls against the side of the house; I saw us sitting at the piano singing for hours on end.  And oh, the food.  My dear sweet mom made for me fried bread and coca-cola. My favorite. Suddenly, it was 30 years ago, once again.

Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."  If you are going through a battle in your life today, I challenge you to put your trust in God and watch His hand at work.  When He brings you through, I'll bet you'll also find precious memories on the other side.

Our Blessed Hope

I watched again tonight the movie, "The Passion of the Christ".  I have watched this movie six times now, and I have yet to walk away from it unshaken, unmoved and not in a state of disbelief.  Not disbelief that it really happened, but the inability to comprehend why He would suffer the way He did for ME.  There is no one more unworthy of His sacrifice than I am.  No murderer, no thief, no deciever...no one.  I am just as sinful in God's eyes as they are and still, He did that for ME.  No matter how hard I may try, I cannot begin to fathom the kind of love it took for Him to set aside for a time the beauty of heaven and come to earth as a human being, knowing all along exactly what He would suffer...for ME.  I don't know why, but I'm so glad He did.

And I'm so glad that He didn't just die for me...He also was resurrected for me!  Thank you my Lord for the promise of new life.  May I daily be reminded of Your great sacrifice and of the victory of Your resurrection.  In the words of Martin Luther, "Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime."  This is truly our blessed hope.