What is Your Season?

Our happy summer time diversion from our normal routine is in the form of a vegetable garden this year.  Other summers have included the likes of making a winding cobble stone path through our back yard, a cement square patio and planting many fruit bushes and trees.  We figure if it is taking up room, energy and the infamous Fortuna summertime water bill, it might as well be producing something of value besides being ornamental.      

As I pull up weeds in our vegetable garden, harvest the snow peas and pluck fat blueberries off the bush my mind races with many parallels to the life of faith.  No wonder we read of many comparisons between the agricultural life and our spiritual lives in the Bible!  And, making the parallels more concrete is the fact that I am no expert gardener.  Some people say they have a green thumb and some a black.  I’d have to say I have a very dark green thumb – somewhere in between.  My great gardening ideas don’t always work out.  Did I mention that this is actually our second garden this year?  No, you well know that Fortuna does not have a long season in which to have a double harvest.  Our first garden froze…despite my habitual mother-hen care.  We started over after our particularly wet cold Spring and are now reaping the benefits of our second (or in some cases third) plantings.  Expensive vegetables they may well be, but they come from our yard and there is some kind of feeling of triumph when the veggies come to full maturity when I carry them into the kitchen.  Oh!  Spiritual parallels all over the place, and me with a dark green thumb!

 

How about you? How is the garden of your life right now?  Is it a season of planting – waiting in faith for prayers to be answered without visible results?  Are you watering – just nurturing those entrusted to your care and attending to their growth?  How about the “miracle grow” season – some area of life has lost its nutrients and it is time to fertilize and add to the soil so it may someday produce a bountiful crop.  Is it a time of weeding – unearthing those energy consuming distractions that would drain life away from that which is most important?  Are you going after the gophers?  Are there persistent irritating issues in life that need to be dealt with and you have declared - the time is now!  Is it a time of harvest for you?  You have planted in faith, and consistently shared the love of Christ with someone and now you are able to see the visible rewards of your labors?  There has been fruit – someone you care about has come to Christ and is growing in the faith!  It is a season of rejoicing!

 The Bible says, “there is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven.”  (Ecclesiastes 3:1). 

 

Whatever season we may be in we can be sure that if we are seeking the Lord with an open heart to His Word and listening for His still small voice, the word "growth" will be a part of our season!