Garden Wonderings

Gardens are not for everyone.  As times get hard and cost rise, more and more folks are talking about planting a vegetable garden.  Gardening is like fishing.  If you like to fish, it is the fishing that is important and not the fish.  So, it is with gardening.  Of course, one of the reasons gardens are not for everyone is that gardening involves hard work.  I spent most of my time in the garden today with a hoe working out the weeds from the young corn and okra plants.  Hoeing is not a complicated task, but it does require concentration.  Without concentration more than just weeds are going to be chopped out of the ground.     

An unusual thing happened today in the midst of the hoeing.  I came to the conclusion that using a hoe must be in my DNA.  When I look back over the generations of family who have come and gone, I see a long line of people who lived more connected to the dirt than I could ever be.  They had gardens.  They knew how to grow food from the ground, how to use the tools that had no power except hand power, and how to live mindful of the partnership between the seed planter and the Blesser of the seed.    

For a moment it seemed I was not alone out there midst the furrows with an old hoe in hand.  I was reminded of family members who had mastered the skill of planting, tending, and harvesting.   In such moments I sometimes wonder about that great cloud of witnesses spoken of in the Holy Word.  I wonder what they might think of my efforts, wonder what encouraging words they might offer, and wonder, too, if they know of my gratitude to them for their faithfulness to the creation as well as their faithfulness to the Creator.