Garden Thoughts

I was in my garden a couple of evenings ago picking Okra.  It's about the only thing left in the garden now, except for weeds and a few cherry tomatoes.  It always makes me a little sad.

It was a pretty good garden this year, although we have certainly had better ones in the past.  I just didn't spend enough time in it weeding and watering and generally taking care of it.

The Bible tells us that you reap what you sow and that certainly is true, but it is also very true that you reap a lot of things you don't necessarily sow as well.  An uncared for garden will quickly fill up with more varieties of weeds than I can count without taking off my shoes and socks.

There is a good feeling in the spring, when you get out in the cool fresh air and till up the soil and plant corn and bean seeds and put tomato and pepper plants in the ground, but it isn't easy in the heart of summer to get down on your hands and knees and pull weeds and kill squash bugs. 

Did I mention that I hate squash bugs?

Life is like a garden in many ways.  The laws of sowing and reaping apply.  But while people think of sowing as a one time event, what we reap is never dependent on just one day of effort.  Certainly you can mess things up in a single day, but what we reap is really dependent on multiple days of effort.

I think about it most as I raise my children.  For, children are a lot more than the scrambled genetic material of their parents.  They are human beings with minds, hearts, and desires, good points and bad points.  Raising them cannot be done in a single day or even a couple of days.

I pray for my children a lot and for myself as I touch their lives.  It is a fearful thing to have little lives entrusted into your care and to realize that someday they (and their spouses) will reap what you have sowed.

It is better to wake up each day, making a commitment to sow blessing and good, than to wake up one day in the fall angry because all your garden is producing is Okra and Weeds.

Perfect Timing

"But Dad," Elliot wailed.  "I don't want to!"

"I don't really care," I, the hard hearted father, declared.  "I want you to sit on the potty for a little while."

Elliot began again.  "But Dad, I need a book to look at while I'm on the potty."

"That's fine," I told him.  "Just choose one quickly."

He poked around for awhile, getting nowhere particularly fast.  "Elliot," I said.  "I'll choose one for you in just a second, if you don't choose one."

"But Dad," he said (a lot of his statements seem to start with "But Dad").  "I need a book that gets done when I'm done pooping.

Eventually, he chose a book that satisfied his criteria -- The Biggest Bear, as I recall.  With that in hand, he went away relatively quietly.

They say that timing is everything.  Comedians who forget the punch lines to their jokes or, just say them at the wrong moment are not particularly funny.  There is a perfect time to pick corn and beans and squash and sweet potatoes.  And I suppose there is a perfect time to finish a book.

Jesus was both the Master of Time and Timing.  Throughout the Gospel of John, He told His disciples that "My time is not yet come."  Then, near the end of His ministry, He told His disciples that "The hour has come." 

Jesus understood His purpose in this world and was ready to meet it when the time was right.  The crucifixion and the suffering and the glory to follow were upon Him and He would not put them off, even though He could.

In our lives today, Jesus continues to work.  Sometimes it may seem like things are moving too quickly and at others, too slowly, but in the fullness of time, His plans for us will come to pass.

Certainly, we can be certain that there will be suffering and hard ship.  But there will be glory too, to come in His time.

One thing is certain about Jesus, His timing is perfect.

Past Performance and Future Returns

"Past performance does not predict future returns."

This statement, or something like it appears on all stock broker advertisements.  Just because the stock market, or real estate market, or bond market has gone up six percent a year for the last eight years doesn't mean that this won't be the year that it tumbles twenty percent.  Even more importantly, even intelligent money managers will have years where their investments don't hit as well as in the past.

There is no easy prediction of what the market will do.  We tend to think that whatever happened last week is what will continue to happen for the next several months, but there certainly is no guarantee that that is true.  Those who play the market heavily are as likely to lose a bunch of money as to make a bundle.

There are many other areas of life that are unpredictable.  However as I think about God, about how faithful He has been to order the chaos in my life and bring good out of bad situations, it begs the question:  "Will His past faithfulness continue into the future or, is He like the stock market, sometimes up and sometimes down?"

If there is one thing the Bible makes clear, it is the fact that God does not change.  Theologians call this the Immutability of God, but whatever word you use, one thing is clear, God is dependable.

That is a real blessing, for people change and not always for the better, but God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

No one really knows for sure if the stock market will be up or down next week, but we can be sure of God.  The things he has done in the past are just a little sample of the wonders He will do in the future.  God doesn't have bad days.  He has said "I will never leave you or forsake you," and we can depend on that.

With God, past performance does predict future faithfulness.

That's a blessing we can't fully grasp.

Watermelons and Waiting

I'm going to go get some dirt in my bucket!"  Elliot said loudly, holding up a bright orange bucket.

"Where are you going to get dirt?"  Elaine asked him.

"In the garden," he said, which seemed safe enough.  The garden is a good place to get dirt from right now, because about all there is in it is dirt.  Well, dirt, okra, and weeds -- but certainly there is more than enough dirt there to fill up a little child-sized bucket.

Scarcely two minutes had passed when Elliot came hurrying down the hill, yelling proudly and holding something green aloft.  "Elliot David Waldron!"  Elaine said.  "Did you pick that?"

"Yes, Mom," Elliot was exuberant.  "It's a watermelon.  We can eat it."  He was right that it was a watermelon, but it wasn't such a watermelon as would ever grace the shelves of any grocery store.  It was tiny, scarcely bigger than a cantelope and when you tapped on it, it gave no satisfying hollow thud, instead it sounded pretty solid.

Of course, there is no explaining the concept of waiting to a four year old.  Within five minutes of leaving your driveway on a trip, he is ready to be there already.  When he hears about a vacation coming, he is ready to leave the following morning.  And when he sees a watermelon in the garden, he picks it immediately.

Some of this has to do with time sense.  Four year olds just don't have the same sense of time adults have.  Age certainly will let you leave unripe watermelons longer in the garden, but it doesn't necessarily bring patience.  Certainly as we get older, we get quieter while we wait, but that doesn't mean that we have a peaceful spirits in those times of pausing in daily existence.

In those moments when we are ready for the next thing to happen and nothing at all is happening, Patience walks hand in hand with Trust.  For, we can be patient only as we trust that someone greater is in charge and that He will bring things and people into our lives that we need, at exactly the right moment.

Otherwise, we may be tempted to pick the watermelons of life long before they are ripe.

That's far from a tasty proposition.