The Planting Season

If Jesus spoke through parables, I believe that God speaks, partly, through His own creation. All around us are illustrations of what He has written. In our own garden I am struck by the disparity between the tomato plant and the fruit that it bears. How on earth is this dying, brittle plant producing such beautiful, plump red tomatoes?

Yet isn't this what happens in life? That in order to produce beautiful, lasting fruit you must die to so much else in your life? Things that seem important and lasting give way to something more.............

I think of God's goodness in choosing me...........someone who is not perfect, that doesn't have it all together, that every day stumbles just a bit. He chose me to have this family, to produce fruit and it is only by His grace and love that such beauty is produced from such imperfection. I mess up, I make mistakes, I yell, I lose my cool and sometimes take a timeout. I am that brittle, dying plant at times. Ahhh, but just look...... look at what comes from a place of imperfection..........

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

- John 15:16-17

And I am reminded yet again, by our lovely tomatoes...........this is just for a season. This is my planting season. That time of life when you must work long hours - preparing the soil, plotting the land, planting the seeds, watering, tending the garden. You work from sun up to sundown. It's wearing on a person, on a body. You tend to think that it will never end, this constant giving up of time, of freedom, of yourself. Yet this season soon will end and then comes harvest.........that time when you reap what you have sown.

Today may I delight in the season that I am in.................thank you, Lord, for the blessings you have poured out on this family and the grace you extend to each of us so that we may produce much fruit in your name. Help me to recognize the fruit that is being produced and the value of such work. In Your Name..............