“And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.” Mark 4:26-27
I love plants, flowers and a nice yard. When my husband and I bought our first house, it was new construction and we were trying to grow grass. In St. Louis. In July. Not an easy task. Grass seed, straw, water, water, water and more water. Some parts of the yard had grass and others didn’t. The next spring and summer we would start the process again. We joked the first few years we lived there, that if it was green and fit under the lawnmower, then it was grass! Eventually, though, John was able to get rid of most of the weeds, use the proper fertilizer and have a nice, green yard that was real grass! Now he is actually pretty good at keeping out the weeds and having a lush, green, grassy yard. As for the plants and flowers…well, they need to be pretty resilient for me (us) to grow them. Since moving out east, I have found that some plants that I could not grow in my yard in St. Louis without constant care, will grow here and that is nice…but, I digress…I do not consider myself much of a gardener. Beautiful yards with lots of plants and flowers take a lot of time. Someone has to prepare the soil, plant the seed, water the ground, wait and water some more, wait and water, finally…there is a little shoot. Being a good gardener requires a lot of patience. Something that I am not really good at practicing.
In my Christian life, sometimes, I want to see the results of my labors right now, today…not tomorrow, not next week, or next year…NOW, Lord, please…answer my prayer NOW! Notice how I throw the “please” in there, yet end with an exclamation? That is the human side of me. We all have that side, unfortunately, mine comes through much louder and clearer than I wish at times. But…my job, as a Christian is to plant the seed, water the soil and the Master Gardner will make it grow. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 3:6 “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” I need to just do my job and get out of the way…be patient and let the Master Gardener take over. I am aware of some people that watch me and others be may be watching me from afar…it doesn’t matter if I am aware of them or not, They watch how I act. They watch what I say. They watch the SEEDS I plant. Some seeds I plant deliberately. Others get dropped. I need to work on planting and dropping good seeds. Everything I do and say should be a reflection of the Master Gardener. Tall order. The whole planting and waiting is especially true with children. The seeds are planted…
Lord, please help me to plant good seeds today. To act as you would act. To be patient with others and to trust that you will work things out in your time. Please help me to let you be the Gardener of my life. Thank you for another day to try again…
How about you?
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