My Garden

For who has despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice....
~ Zechariah 4:10

I never expected to enjoy gardening. I always expected to live in the country and have animals everywhere. But, since I have the legal limit of dogs and cats allowed by the city, and I can't hide a horse in the back yard, I started planting things. For years, I planted and they died. The only things that didn't die were the irises and monster roses (that's another story). I probably planted a dozen rose bushes in this yard that died. So, I gave up.

One of my Faith Roses

Several years ago, Rick and I were shopping at Walmart and I was mooning over the five-dollar rose bushes. Rick said, "If you want some, buy them." I said, "No, they'll just die." That's when I heard that quiet voice in my spirit say, "Oh ye of little faith." So, I bought seven. I put five climbers along the fence and two hybrid teas in the front garden with the irises and the Angel Face roses that my sister gave me the year before (they actually had not died). I prayed when I planted them. They became my faith projects. I prayed over them, watered them and talked to them - "grow babies". By the end of summer, the tallest climber was four feet. They are still alive today and I call them my Faith Roses!

Inspired by success, I started more gardens. I planted a small one in the back yard with hydrangea, impatiens and hollyhocks. I turned the boys’ old jungle gym into an arbor that is now covered with passion flowers and a lady banks rose. In the midst of all this, I discovered the most amazing thing. God's Word was coming alive to me in new ways through the work I was doing. I learned that pruning really does produce more fruit and I began to understand the process of pruning that God was doing in my own life. Some things just have to be cut off of us so that we can grow. Seeing that the end result of a good pruning produced a rose bush covered in beautiful blooms helped me to yield to the Lord's pruning of my life.

The resented piece of dirt. (The BEFORE pic)

In the fall of 2007, I was going through a very difficult time. I was at a spiritual turning point and felt that I had missed God. I was depressed, hurt and very angry. I had no interest in gardening. Rick had other plans, though. He had bought a used tiller and leaf-vacuum-chipper-mulcher thing and wanted to play. He took me shopping and looked at flowers, but I was not moved. He ended up buying over a hundred clearance bulbs of all kinds. I cringed at the thought of having to plant them, so I announced that I didn’t have any room in my gardens. So, Rick, being Rick, tilled a very large section of the front yard – about 300 square foot. I was not happy! I resented him and that piece of dirt! I let it sit all winter. When spring came, I was still depressed, hurt and angry; but I was also so embarrassed by that ugly piece of yard that I began to dig out grass. I sat in that patch of dirt for hours pulling up grass and weeds and getting over myself. I finally got motivated enough to put in some edging, mark off a path and plant the bulbs. Rick mulched leaves that were still around from fall and we put them over the bulbs.

Nothing much grew that year and I still resented that garden enough to let it get overgrown with grass and weeds by the next spring. If it had been in the backyard, I would have just quit; but the whole neighborhood could see it. So, I pulled weeds again. To my surprise, I found things actually growing from the bulbs I had planted. “Oh ye of little faith.” Inspired, I began to envision a garden. Hope returned and brought faith with it. I moved flowers from other areas of the yard into the big garden. I bought plants all spring and planted them. Neighbors gave me flowers. Rick installed a sprinkler system. The new garden took shape and things began to bloom. I had two beds planted and mulched with bare ground paths between them. I was finally enjoying my new garden.

Then, summer came and I became preoccupied with other things. I let the garden slip. It was too hot anyway, and I was just too busy. When I finally realized that the bare paths were filling up with weeds, I just gave up again. Rick and the rain kept it watered. I avoided the front yard most of the summer. By cool weather, it was an overgrown mess. I was so angry with myself. I was sure that all the flowers were dead and my time and money had been wasted. But I didn’t care. It would take too much work to clean it up. I was ready to just mow over it.

Then, one Sunday in September 2009, I was worshipping the Lord during church service when He convicted me to clean up that garden. Reluctantly, I got started pulling weeds again. And there, beneath the weeds, flowers were blooming. Everything I had planted survived the summer of neglect.

I spent two months pulling out weeds. By Thanksgiving, the garden was weed free and covered with a thick layer of leaf mulch. I told my pastor about a day when I had been especially depressed and how the Lord had prompted me to go work in the garden. I spent the whole day pulling weeds and I felt better. My pastor encouraged me to continue, saying that as I pulled out weeds in the natural, I was also pulling out spiritual weeds. I like that.

My garden as it is now. (The AFTER pic)

Today, my garden is flourishing. I am very grateful for my husband’s stubbornness and obedience to the Lord, Who knew what I needed even when I didn’t want it. I am amazed at how far that piece of dirt has come in just 3 years. It changes with the seasons. Spring flowers burst forth with color, then fade away as another wave of plants emerge. Rick and I watched a hollyhock grow from two feet in February to over six feet by May and explode into bloom. By mid-summer, it went to seed and was replaced by cannas that popped out of the ground in late spring and are now eight feet tall. The garden has become my hiding place, my prayer closet, and my reminder of who God is and how He works in our lives.

My hiding place.

There are times in our lives when we get discouraged, overwhelmed or simply neglect our spiritual life. Our gardens fill with weeds as we fall back into familiar bad habits or negative attitudes. Once we realize how overgrown our lives are, we are tempted to just give up. We think that all the work God has done in us is dead and gone. We’ve failed and we always will fail. Not so. Pulling weeds is worth the effort. As we begin to deal with those unrighteous areas of our life, we see that God’s work is still there. His love for us has not died. It is there, beneath the weeds, waiting for us to uncover it.