Planting a Bigger Garden

 

 

“I was a little late getting my garden in this year,” the older man told me.  “I guess I just didn’t get around to it when I intended, but I’ve got my plants in now.”

I’m not sure what people in urban areas talk about.  I’m guessing sports and the weather, but when you live in the country, you talk to people about gardening.  If things are dry (as they are right now), you complain about how we’ve had less rain than usual for the time of year.  When the Japanese Beatles show up, you complain about them and tell about how you’ve put out traps for them.

(I’m pretty sure these traps don’t work.  They do attract beetles, but I’m also sure they would work better if I put them in my neighbor’s yard.  Being the Christian man I am, I haven't done that.)

“How late did you get it out?”  I asked. 

“Just last week,” he said.  He pulled out his phone and showed me a few photos of an immaculate garden.

“It looks great,” I said.  “You sure do have a lot planted.  I plant something similar, but I’m feeding five children.”

“It’s just my wife and me,” he said.  “We end up giving a lot of it away.  But you know, as you get older, there’s less that you can give to others.  Raising a garden helps us stay useful.”

The verse comes to me from Acts 20:35, “…remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Many have not understood this fact.  Their lives are all about receiving gifts and blessings.  Even as they do this, they are missing the greater blessing.

The good feelings one gets from getting a gift are often fairly short in duration.  There is excitement when Christmas or a birthday comes, with all the gifts that show up, but then they quickly get put aside for the other needs of life.

On the other hand, when we are able to give, it says not only that we have enough, but that we have a heart that sees and desires to meet others needs.  We have realized that we have much and we simply want to pass it on.

More than that, the memory of the ways that we have blessed others will stick with us far down life’s road.

It requires planning to have the resources to give.  It takes effort to budget and prepare ways that we can bless others when we see their needs.

It might even be something as simple as planting and tending a garden that is bigger than our family needs, simply so that we can share something more than zucchini with those around us at harvest time.

Those who have prepared truly find that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Church Signs

 

“God accepts knee mail.”

I read the sign and smiled a little.  Church signs have always amused me.  It seems that the folks who put the sayings on them usually fall into one of three camps.

There is a group that simply put a Bible verse or hymn title on them.  These are safe, although I'm guessing people don't pay as much attention to them as to some other signs.

There is a group of sign posters that simply puts the title of the pastor’s next sermon.  Of course, these can be creative depending on the preacher.  Some preachers are prone to choosing boring titles, like “Abraham a man of God" or "Honoring Your Mother on Mother's Day."

(I'm not one to cast stones -- I am terrible at choosing titles for things I share.)

The last group are those who try to get creative with the church signs.  These are funny things that often seem as though someone whose main calling in life is to tell Dad jokes decided to get into the church sign business.

“God wants spiritual fruits not religious nuts.”

One man told me that he had charge of a church sign for a while.  “I had a book of little sayings that I used,” he said.  “You don’t want them to be too long because then people can’t read the whole sign before they drive by.  They need to make people notice the sign."

I do wonder how many people stop in for a church service because of the church sign.  My guess is not many.  Those who go to church already have a church and those who don’t attend church aren’t likely to drop in, simply because the sign in front of the church made them chuckle.

The writer of Hebrews told the people to whom he was writing, “Don’t stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other, especially as you see the day drawing near.”

We need fellowship.  We need encouragement.  We need a church family – not because of their awesome signs, but because of the light they carry with them.  Without that encouragement and support we are bound to struggle.

As one church sign writer put it so well, 

"Ch—ch.  What’s missing?  UR!”

The End of School

 

“It’s only two more weeks,” I said in my sagest voice.

“Two more weeks till what?”  Victoria asked.

“Two more weeks till the end of school,” I said.  “Will you be sad that school is over?”

Victoria didn’t have to think long on that one.  “No,” she said.  “But I am excited about our field trip.  We are going to the zoo!”

What followed then was a long discussion of the animals at the zoo.  The North Carolina Zoo apparently has at least three different kinds of bears (Black Bears, Grizzly Bears, and Polar Bears), but not, Pandas.  Apparently, it is also lacking that, most important of animals, Naked Mole Rats.

For my children, the beginning of school seems a long time ago, an event shrouded in the distant haze of the past.  If they think hard enough, they can remember things about those early days of the 2022-23 school year, but it is almost as though it was a different person taking those classes.

I would say that my children are like most children.  They enjoy certain aspects of school, but they don’t really enjoy studying and doing schoolwork. 

They would far rather sit by a pool and eat popsicles.

All good things come to an end, but so do experiences we don’t enjoy.  Psalm 30:5 says, “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

For mountain climbers, there comes a time when they reach the summit and can look back on all of the struggles that lay behind them and bask in the suns rays as they strike the peak.  The struggle was real, but those who persevered found that it didn’t last.

So too, there comes a time at the end of each school year when children can look back and see, as in a blur, a myriad of tests and quizzes, pizza parties and papers, and realize that it soon will end.  Whether or not the year was a success is based on the lessons learned and friendships nurtured and not simply on the grades earned in each class.

It is helpful for us to remember this.  The hard times seem to last forever, while the good times, just the blink of an eye.  Even when are struggling we must remember that difficult times do come to an end as well.  The question is whether we are learning the right lessons from them and developing strong relationships.  These are things that will carry us from the sorrow of the evening into the joy filled morning.