saltandlight

It’s gardening season here in South Georgia! Some things are starting to slow down or stop growing and some things haven’t become ready yet. This is the time of year when all of our friends and neighbors are harvesting corn, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, beans… The list goes on. Those are some of the things that we have grown and are growing. What does gardening have to do with God?

There are so many good lessons to be learned in the garden! God can use anything to teach us and what better way than something so natural? Something people have been doing from the very beginning of mankind. Growing our own food!

Preparing the soil. It’s important before you ever plant a seed or transplant that you have prepared your soil. The soil needs nutrients. It doesn’t always have the nutrients that it needs because it gets used and abused over time. The more it is used, the more nutrients it needs. 😉 Before you do anything else, you want to check your soil and prepare it. Much like soil, our hearts need to be prepared. Before a seed can be planted and really grow into what it is supposed to be, the soil has to be prepared. Our hearts also need to be nourished and ready for whatever seed God wants to plant in it. And the more our hearts are used and abused, the MORE nourishment we need. The nourishment being God’s Word, in case you didn’t pick up on that. With gardens, if you plant a seed on a dry, rocky ground with no nutrients, that seed is likely not to bloom. What does grow well in dry and rocky soil? Weeds!!! A weed will grow anywhere won’t it? Well, we don’t want weeds in our hearts. We want that good seed that God sends to us. We want our hearts to be nourished and ready. So when God plants the seeds, we are ready to grow!

Planting seeds is the fun part! I love the planting and the harvesting. Those are my two favorite parts of gardening. Spreading God’s word is like planting seeds. As a matter of fact, I’ve often heard it referred to as planting seeds. Now, some seeds aren’t any good. They may come from a bad batch. They might be old seed. The seed could even be rotten. We have to be careful that the seed we are planting and the word we are spreading is coming from a good place. Our hearts must be clean before we open our mouth! We must be in prayer and make sure our hearts are clean. Do this by asking God to show us where we are failing Him. Show us what we need to change in our lives. People can tell if you are genuine most of the time. If they feel that your heart isn’t right, they aren’t going to want to listen to anything you have to say.

Weeding and tending to the garden is not the fun part. I’m going to be honest, I try to avoid this part of gardening. Thankfully I have a husband that can’t stand a garden with weeds. He keeps the cleanest garden! Weeds don’t stand a chance on his watch. LOL I’m exaggerating a little. But this is the hardest part of gardening in my opinion. Because even after we have prepared the soil and planted, them weeds tend to sneak back in and pop up. And multiply! Also bugs and critters like to enjoy the fruits of our labor as well. That is all part of tending to the garden. We have to work every day to get the weeds out, we have to add fertilizer to the plants. We have to water the garden often. Well, you know what I’m going to say right? Our hearts need weeding, fertilizing and watering as well. And sometimes we have bugs and worms that sneak in and take over. And since I like to call hornworms, devil worms, we will refer to the bugs and worms as Satan. LOL Satan works sneakily and slowly sometimes to attack our hearts and minds. He blends in and attacks when we aren’t looking. We must pray and read God’s word daily to keep the weeds and bugs away. We must water our hearts with praise and worship in order to make our heart bloom!

Harvest is the other fun part! The best part of gardening and the whole point of doing it to begin with us the harvest! To enjoy the fruits of our labor! It’s beautiful thing to have fresh produce to enjoy and especially knowing that you grew this with God’s help! Some things may not grow even when we feel like we’ve done everything right. We may not always get a good harvest. At times like that we have to thank the good Lord for He does give. He blesses us in many different ways. Sometimes our harvest is not what we expect. Some crops pollinate each other and make weird looking produce. I’ve had some weird looking squash over the years. Side note: most vegetables and fruits need multiples to grow. They don’t grow alone. They need other plants to pollinate each other! We also need other Christians to lean on and help each other in our daily walks as well! (I thought that was another interesting point to make.) When we do see a bountiful harvest, we must thank the Lord for His blessings. Because none of it can grow and produce without Him.

Canning and preserving! You didn’t think that was it did you? Hee, hee. Some of us grow enough food to can and preserve things to last us all year! Preserving is another interesting process that has some biblical similes as well. Preserving our food is much like preserving the things that we have learned and that God has taught us. We all have different processes to do this. I like to write, so I write things down. I write my prayers often as well and I like to look back and see how God answered those prayers. When canning vegetables you use salt to preserve it. It also helps with taste! Jesus said in Matthew 5:13
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. One of my first years canning green beans, I forgot to add salt. I realized later that the green beans were ruined and I had to throw them out (just like the word says!). I didn’t realize what had happened to them at the time. A few weeks later a visiting preacher spoke about this verse and it dawned on me in the middle of church! I didn’t add the salt! LOL It’s funny now. And now I MAKE SURE that I add the salt to my jars before putting them into the canner!

After all is said and done and when we reach our heavenly home, we want to hear the words “Well done my good and faithful servant”. Don’t we? I hope you do. I know that I sure do. Otherwise what are we doing? I hope this has been good “food” for thought for y’all! (Sorry I couldn’t resist!).

Blessings,

Cheryl