Plants

I have a little potted garden growing out on the walkway that runs along our apartment. It’s sort of an experiment in urban gardening – I’m learning all sorts of things for next year. Like that beets might not like pots. Bean and pea tendrils are infinite as long as they have something to climb up. Strawberries are sensitive to change. There is such a thing as too much water. I tend to compare myself to plants a lot – there are so many beautiful scriptures that liken us and the spiritual journey to agricultural elements and processes – trees, fields, branches. The natural world is a beautiful mirror of the story of God. All of creation speaks of the creator - the rhythm and deep mystery of it all. The whispers of the Divine are contained within a pea pod. I’ve been identifying with my garden a lot. Here are some reasons why:

1. You have to neglect watering certain plants and let them dry out or they won’t produce fruit, just lots of nice, green leaves. The production of fruit is directly correlated to dry seasons.

2. Starring at a plant doesn’t make it grow faster. Growth takes time. You cannot will flowers to come, they just do when they’re ready and they last for a season.

3. Gardening is hard and requires you to put in work and time, and yet it’s ultimately the Lord that makes things grow.

4. Seeds have to fall to the ground, die, and be buried in order to grow into new plants. New life comes out of death.

5. Sunlight is necessary.

6. For vegetable and fruit-bearing plants, the pretty little flowers have to die and fall away for the fruit to come.

7. I still don’t actually understand how tiny seeds become huge, life-giving plants. I get that light and water and good soil help this process along, but what actually makes a seed become a plant – how it knows what to do and does it faithfully – is beyond me. The heart is that way, too – all the ingredients can be there for a life surrendered to Christ, but the Holy Spirit has to come in and do something to the heart to turn a person to himself. It is deep magic.

Last week while I got ready for work, I was listening to a podcast from the church I attended in college. The sermon was about our call to usher the in-breaking Kingdom of God wherever we go. The pastor likened this call to the picture of a young family gardening together. The little kids with their plastic shovel and rake, so proud of themselves and all the hard work they’re doing to plant and make things grow, and the parents smiling on them, delighted in their desire to help, and also lovingly amused at their children's notion that the garden’s growth is rooted in their efforts with their little plastic shovels. The Father invites us to be part of planting his Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven, but he is the one who does the real work. He cultivates the garden of the soul. It is deep magic.