Green Thumb Alert!

Years ago I was astonished when my brother, Andy, led me on a mini tour of his garden. He had everything from tomatoes to canteloupe and even some corn stalks. For added flavor, Andy planted an herb garden for cooking. A few years later, I visited my sister, Rachel, and she, too, had gotten the garden bug and hard cultivated her own variety of veggies. Why is this so astonishing? We had never grown anything as children expect weeds in our backyard. Okay, we had a blackberry bush, but is a wild one that grew along our back fence! To watch them become animated with their garden tales is always enjoyable--and I always have to take a tour to inspect their home-grown goods. I do admit that home-grown always taste better than store bought.

Well...now it's my turn! The other day a dear friend gave me seeds for tomatoes, green peppers, chili peppers & jalepenos (for C!), and a variety of herbs. It took nearly 2 hours to plant the seeds in pots and clean up the mess on my balcony. Oh, have I mentioned that we live on the 5th floor? Anything I 'plant' can only grow in a pot. As I studied the back of each seed packet I was struck by the length of time it took to germinate such a small seed. Most of which is only 3 weeks. From that point on, it will take several more weeks before the plant grows and within a few months I should be picking treats from my very own balcony garden.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if everything in life was just like planting a garden? One of my favorite books of poetry talks about 'cultivating faithfulness'. Only with great patience and waiting will I have the time needed to cultivate faithfulness. A friend of mine was heading back to the States and was going to have the opportunity to speak with others about her life in this part of the world. It was disheartening to hear how discouraging those at home can be...most without realizing it. Questions that pertain to amount of fruit and vegetables is not an easy questions for those who live within this hemisphere. Cultivation and germination is not a mere 3 weeks and harvest is rarely within 3 months. For many in this part of the world, the call of cultivation is a call to surrender to time, schedules, and to status quo demands. A Farmer's Almanac does not exist for what we have been asked to do. It's a call to surrender to timing not known to us, but Praise Him! It IS known by our Father.

How is your cultivation going this season? Ask the Father where He wants you to plant His love, His grace, and His forgiveness within the soil around you.