When we purchased our current house, I knew there were flower beds. But it was March the first time we looked at it, so I didn’t realize just how many plants they contained. The first summer here, the yard was like a revelation – each week more green sprouted and new flowers bloomed. A quick count revealed more than 100 different varieties of plant. To say I was overwhelmed is an understatement. Gardening has never been something I liked. My husband jokes that I have a brown thumb – I don’t just kill plants (black thumb), I slowly torture them to death. I had told Randy that if we bought this house I wanted someone else to do the gardening, but it became apparent that to pay someone would cost a small fortune. So I started asking women at the church for help. And Merri Jo graciously started teaching me about tending this overgrown, brightly blooming patch of land.
Then winter came and covered everything in a blanket of white, and I could forget about it. But God had not forgotten. He was teaching me about life as a garden through two books, “When the Well Runs Dry“ and “Weeds Among the Wheat” (see sidebar). They reference the writings of Teresa of Avila who talks about prayer like watering the plants, about the flowers of virtue, and dealing with weeds. In March of this year, just as the green things were popping through the hard ground, I taught a class using those books. And in the process, God was impressing upon my heart that he wanted me to tend to my yard as he was tending to my heart.
So this summer, I will try to blog about some of the things I am learning about God and his ways as I learn about plants and their ways. Should be full of surprises!
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