Unexpected Abundance
Welcome to October! For those of us in the Northern hemisphere there is now a distinct chill in the air, leaves are popping with color and it is time to put my garden beds to bed for a long winter's nap.
As I pray back over the events of this past spring and summer, I am often struck by how challenges and blessings have existed side by side. Because the stress and struggles are so pervasive, it is sometimes easy to miss the blessings. One such hidden blessing for me over the last few months has been my garden.
All of my past attempts at growing anything - truly any thing - had been thwarted by my busy schedule, powdery mildew and neighborhood deer that mistook my tomato patch for their personal buffet! After several years of only minimal success, I gave in to my frustrations and let the garden fall into disrepair - overgrown by weeds and ignored for almost 10 years.
Maybe the land needed to lie fallow. Maybe I needed to lie fallow. This year I came to the earth rested and ready to dig in the dirt, plant seeds, pull weeds and watch my garden grow. And grow it did - in unexpected abundance! I'd venture a guess that I've harvested more veggies this year than in all my years of failed gardening combined. Fresh cucumber, tomato, onion and basil salad became a new family favorite.
Perhaps we all need fallow seasons every now and then. Our body, mind and spirit need seasons that are not productive in order to prepare for productive seasons yet to come.
What type of season is it for you? A season of lying fallow? A season of weeds and pests? A season of abundant grace? Be assured that throughout all the seasons of life - the productive and the unproductive - God is present. God, the Eternal Gardener, walks with you through it all; sowing seeds that will thrive in the messy dirt, stinky fertilizer, drops of rain and gift of sunlight that warms the earth and brings forth new life.
It is my deepest prayer that amidst the mess, the stink and the teardrops, God's light will warm your spirit so that something nourishing might take root and grow in unexpected abundance.