Lessons from the Garden

 The fast is over and now it is time to reflect on what God taught me over the past 40 days.  I think my garden really speaks the message better than I could ever capture in words.  You see this scrawny looking tomato plant with it's measly little tomato holding on for dear life to the vine?  That is what I was feeling like before God took hold of my heart. I was not thriving in my walk with Jesus. I certainly loved Jesus and my life was marked and identified by His grace, but I was not bearing the abundance of fruit I was meant to bear.  This plant

and this plant were all started from the same seed packet with the same fertiliser at the  time in a sunsoaked window of my front living room.  They were both planted out in the garden at roughly the same time and experienced the same weather conditions and mostly the same watering.  The big difference between them was the one here was planted in my main garden which received a healthy dose of compost and regular organic Garden Tone to feed it's growing vine.  The tomato above was planted in my kitchen garden which is on a slope. I wasn't able to tend it this year because I had knee surgery and was not able to manage the slope with a weak and healing knee.  It was neglected. It was the same plant, with the same start, with the same "owner" but with very little fruit. That one little tomato is all that is left of a very good beginning.  

The plants that were cared for, watered regularly, fertilised monthly, pruned, and harvested look beautiful, a miracle really.  They were once seeds dormant but full of potential.  Now they fill my table. 

In my fast the lesson of the garden became so clear to me. If I want to really bear the kind of fruit that God intends for me to bear I need maintenance. I  need to be in God's word, but I thought I was in God's word before to be honest. I have always had a regular quiet time.  I needed more than that, I needed to look at my day and see the parts of it that were not producing fruit.  Practically speaking, I needed to turn off the television.  I realised that I had grown lazy with my evening hours. I would have food network on from after dinner until bedtime. It isn't that I cared about it, but it was just noise.  God has claimed those hours, and most of the hours of my day. I am reading books now by people who love him and disciple me in their wisdom. I am writing out of the overflow of God's work in me. I am loving my family better, praying for people more often, and going to where they are to pray for them. I am dreaming dreams that God wants me to dream and hoping hopes He has placed in me.  I am bearing fruit, and it is just the beginning, but sister, it feels good!

This morning I took a picture of this pepper plant. It is weighted by 3 large peppers and because of that it is hanging it's head low, in humility to say this is what I offer, God has broken me by the weight of my fruit.  I want to be like that, I want to have the humility of this little pepper plant, that the fruit that my life bears is beyond me, and my capacity to contain it. I want to walk in that "exceedingly, abundantly beyond all we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20)

My excuse for not caring for my kitchen garden was valid in June, and maybe in July, but by the time August rolled around I was just not interested in it any more. Even though I was able to climb up there, I was not willing because it just didn't seem worth it.   We get into times of excuses where we don't invest in God's kingdom and we don't spend the time with him we need to in order to bear fruit.  These times snowball and before we know it we are a puny vine with only one measly cherry tomato that looks out of place hanging on a limb without leaves.  Take a look at your life.  Are you allowing God to fertilise your mind and to water your soul?  Are you letting too many additives to feed your heart that you feel full at the end of the day but with out fruit.  I am pleading with you, let it go, listen to Jesus.  He has so much more for you.




My eggplants got a late start because of some insects that ravaged their tender young leaves, but here it is today.  There is a promise in this little plant, she is flowering. Those flowers will become an elegant deep purple Japanese eggplant and provide nourishment for my family.  There is a promise in God's word, Abide in Him and you will bear fruit.  I can see the flowers blooming already.