Garden Lesson #1

So my Grandpa Allred and Grandpa Blackham had amazing gardens.  I remember working with both of them in it and enjoying the produce they provided.  My own father had a garden as we grew up in Georgia that we all worked.  My Grandpa Allred is the master gardener in the family and it is well worth the trip in August to get some of his famous corn.  Even in his old age every year I ask him if he is going to plant a garden and he says he is not up to it.  Yet, every year he can't resist planting just a few rows of corn and a few tomato plants. 

I had a really small garden in Urbana and once we moved here to Bolingbrook we landscaped a small 5 x 20 foot garden in.  We have really enjoyed the produce every year, even as small a garden as it is.  Every year as I tend the garden there are so many lessons I learn about life.  It is truly therapeutic for me.  I know we're suppose to let our kids learn and work with us in the garden but it is my time to think and work there. 

I am going to record a few lessons I learn there, more as a journal than a blog but I feel they are so important for me to remember.  This morning I tended to my garden.  I have really needed to cage my tomato plants.  Tomatoes are a vine and so they do best when they have something to climb up instead of crawl all over the ground.  Some gardeners cage them from the get go as seedlings.  This year with the baby I'm running really late and have not had a minute to run out and fix them.  When I went out this morning they were not looking so great but once I started putting the cages around the plant and adjusting the branches I was amazed with how much they've grown even in my neglect. 

I was thinking how we are here in life dealing with the hustle and bustle and sometimes we are thrown a curve ball.  We have an unexpected challenge and as much as we don't want it we are forced into a situation.  As I moved some of the branches to climb up the cage I broke a few of them.  I thought I bet this is how God feels.  He knows what is best for me and it is very painful sometimes but as the master gardener He is helping me grow and be a better person.  As the summer progresses I know these tomato plants will grow taller than the cages and be huge.  If I don't cage them and fix their branches to grow properly will over take the whole garden and the tomatoes will be all over the ground and choking other plants. 

Another part I couldn't do this morning because I need Rick for is to stake the cage.  I have him hammer a large wooden stake into the cage and deep into the soil to anchor the cage against the storms we have here.  I thought how that is like faith.  If we have a deep anchor in God and the gospel he will anchor us against the storms in life.  I am so grateful for my little garden, for the produce it provides, the therapy it provides, and the lessons God teaches me there.