Words from the Garden

A garden is not just about tomatoes, peppers, corn, and beans.  These things are simply the result of something else.  A garden is really about order and discipline.  As I walked away from a day of working in that space which becomes the center of life in these days of Spring and looked over my shoulder, I saw rows of plants lined up in order breaking the ground.  Tomato plants were starting their upward journey inside the wire cages around them and the onions had been pulled to lay in a row to be dried by the sun.    

It was a moment before the real battle with the weeds started, a time when water had left its glistening mark on the plants, and when hope was abundant in everything that could be seen.  When I took that evening pause to look I was amazed at the order which had been created out of what some months ago was overgrown chaos.   It was a moment for stopping for a second look and expressing gratitude for being enabled to be a part of something so much a part of the creation.   

Surely, a garden teaches us about the way chaos can be overcome by allowing ourselves to enter into the creation's rhythm of order and discipline.  Those things abound in the creation around us.  It may be evident in the neatly laid out garden, but to allow ourselves to become immersed in what God is about in His created order enables us to see that it is as much a part of the fabric of creation as is earth and sky and sea.  What we see visibly outside of us is also, perhaps, a symbol of what the Spirit of God desires to do in our inner being.  Though the holy order and disciplined work of the Spirit an important harvest is being readied within us.