You Won’t Believe What I Found

I don’t mind telling you that I am not a plant lady. I know it’s very fashionable to be good at plants… but I have sensed God releasing me from this cultural expectation. 

I have a few people in my life that don’t want to give up hope, and they’re very kind to gift me plants or lend me advice. But friends, I’m just not sure it’s in me. I don’t know if I’m a plant girl. 

But back in the beginning of the pandemic, I bought into the hype and decided I wasn’t just a plant girl, I was A GARDEN GIRL. And with all the extra time at home, I had my husband build my first garden bed. I researched zones, I bought seeds, I gave it my all. And I got a few heads of lettuce and a beautiful crop of cucumbers - but for the most part, my first garden flopped. 

I tried again in the fall of 2020, but half-heartedly, and soon I just let the bed go. Enormous weeds sprouted, my dog continually rooted around in it, and the whole thing has just looked like a mess for the last year and a half. 

Until... this weekend. I was on a phone call and meandering around my backyard. I gently giggled at how crazy the bed was, overgrown and wild, and then I spotted what looked like a few little tops of carrots. As I listened in on the phone call, I reached through the weeds, yanked hard, and pulled up THREE HUGE CARROTS. 

I kept moving around the garden bed and realized that some of the “weeds” were vegetables I’d intentionally planted A YEAR AND A HALF AGO. So then I got inquisitive and decided to check on my lime bush (another plant I’d given up on and stashed in the corner of the yard). Sure enough, THREE LIMES WERE GROWING. 

All of this fruit was being produced when I wasn’t watching, when I assumed harvest was over. I was calling something “finished”, but natural growth took place.

I don’t need to work too hard to finish the metaphor for us, do I? 

Things are growing in your life, where you have decided there is only defeat. 

Things are growing in others, where you have proclaimed death. 

God is not done with the part of your soul, your spirit, your situation that seems all but barren. 

I know this because I know Him. So let’s look for the fruit. Let’s keep tending the gardens we’re called to. Let’s cultivate what we’ve been given. 

You in?