Monday, April 28, 2008

Seeds

In the midst of the chaos that is trying to squeeze all the sanity out of our lives right now, I've been extremely blessed by seeds. You see, along with this 100 year old house we bought, came a 100 year old yard. And the people who lived in this house 2 owners ago were gardeners.

It's been my pure delight and pleasure (what's the difference? I'm not sure, but I'm trying to show my excitement here!) to see things literally spring to life before our eyes.


This is the flowering tree right by my front porch. It was covered with hundreds of sweet smelling blossoms!
These little beauties, were hidden by a foot of leaves, but after we raked those away, they bloomed up beautifully.

And this is one of my favorites. Must be some kind of exotic tulip, or at least that's what I like to call it.

This is just a regular tulip, but perfect in every way. Who says tulips are supposed to grow straight up and down? This one wanted to lie on the ground and bloom. And as a fellow gal who's had a hard day, I can understand that. I think we should add an addendum to the 'Bloom where you're planted' thing. It could say 'Bloom even when things didn't work out like you thought they would.' I like the ring to that.


And here are a whole bunch of little darlings springing forth next to my porch steps.


Now, why am I so happy about these flowers? I didn't plant them. I didn't choose the color or location. I didn't plan it out so something in the yard would be blooming all the time. I didn't do anything, besides rake a WHOLE BUNCH of leaves off the ground, so the sun would reach them.

And this, my dear friends, is how God intended life to work. You've heard the concept of 'planting seeds' in someone's life. Like when you tell a friend about the goodness of God, yet they choose a life far from Him. Only later, sometimes years later, to hear they finally chose God! And other times, when I've been disappointed at the lack of response from an unbeliever to trust God, a well-meaning friend has said, 'Just think of the seeds you've planted.' You know, I didn't really think of the seeds. I wanted to see the results. And sometimes I didn't even believe the seed was planted.

But as Spring has sprung at the new Old House, God has been teaching me about what it looks like when someone else plants the seeds before you. All I did was clear away the mess, let the sun shine down and viola! I got flowers! I'm so thankful to the actual gardeners who came before me. They knew what they were doing. They planned and planted and pruned and I get to enjoy the fruit of their labor.

So for those of you currently in the planting stage of life, take heart! Seeds do grow! Keep planting into people's lives. You are making a difference! And for those of you like me who are reaping the harvest of someone else's labor, be thankful. Recognize the Gardener and be gracious you get to enjoy the beauty of life itself.

A picture of our backyard taken from a third floor window. There's our old, old oak tree not quite leafing yet. In the back left under that flowering tree is our fish pond. Mark said it's about 4 feet deep. My idea was forget the fish, let's make it a hot tub!

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