God's Garden

"Night and day, whether a person sleeps or gets up,the seed sprouts and grows, although we do not know how." Mark 4:27

I am an irrational gardener. I have no discipline and plant what I like, often in conditions that are not best suited to the plants. I like getting my hands dirty in the soil, watching seeds take root, watching a backyard explode in color. I rarely remember the names of half of the things I planted, and don't read extensively about caring for plants. I just like being in the garden - the smell of the earth and the colors of green all around me. I have loved it since I can remember. My Grandpa WalkingStick had turned a quarter of our back yard into an amazing garden. He was a true master gardener, and would tell me stories of the vegetables and the flowers, saving special seeds he had cultivated for the next year. His stories often included some big disaster or miracle that he might have witnessed. I love everything about it and yet I have to admit I understand gardening now less than I did when I was a child. I paid close attention but it is still pretty much a miracle to me when anything grows.

And so it is for all of us - we think we are in control of the gardens we tend. No matter how carefully and rigorously, or carelessly and nonchalantly we attend to our gardens, God is still the master gardener. Our gardens, no matter how big our stories become, are still completely reliant on the grace of God. We are totally dependent on the wind, rain and the sun - and the timing of it all. We think we are in charge, but in fact, we are limited in capacity and control. God, on the other hand, makes miracles every day. Miracles in the eyes of the people around, hearts changed in a moment, potential demonstrated where once there was none.

This Sunday I want to rejoice in my total dependence on God and my complete interdependence on God's creatures around me. We sow and wait on the Lord. We reap when the fields are ripe and not before - all in God's time. And we delight in the sun's return and the gentle rain in the morning, neither which we have control over. Thanks be to God that I need the Creator and am necessary in God's Creation. May we spend this day rejoicing in the daily miracle of life and love unbounded.