Fallen Corn

"It's our best garden ever!"  I told my wife, Elaine last summer -- sometime in June.  "We should have plenty of corn and green beans."

The garden did look good.  Corn stalks stood straight and true, pointing towards the skies, the bean plants were bushy and covered with blooms.

Then came June 26th.  A day of heavy rain, mixed with periods of 45 mile per hour winds.  When I got home from work, our corn plants were lying on their sides in the mud, while the bean plants looked disheveled.

As I looked at them, I was really upset.  So much work wasted.  Time that I would never get back had been sunk into these corn rows that looked like they might not bear much at all.  And it was as if I heard God's voice saying to me, as He said to Jonah so long ago, "Do you do well to be angry for the plants?"

"Yes, God," I said.  "Jonah hadn't done anything to bring his plant to be, but Lord, you know how hard I've worked this summer, planting and tilling and how hard Elaine has worked as well."

There was no answer and yet, I understood.  For, I was proud.  Proud of my work, of my effort, of my garden.  That was where my confidence lay.

All the while, it was God who brought about each seed's germination, God who sent the rain and the sun.  While I had taken the credit, He was the one who had made it grow.

It reminded me of a little boy I had heard talking with his dad.  "Now, Cody, I want you to share one of your candies with her," he said pointing to another little girl.  "Whose candy is it Cody?"

Cody looked at the candy in his sweaty little hand.  "It's God's candy," he said at last and gave it to the girl.  It was hard to give away his own candy, but once he knew it was God's it became easier.

I spent forty-five minutes straightening up the corn stalks and while I did so, I knew for sure that it's not my garden.  It is God's garden.  I'm just working in it.  And if He gives or, He takes away, still, I will bless His name.