Introduction to: Devotions from the Greenhouse.

 

“For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations.”

(Isaiah, 61:11)

Today marks a new season: It’s the first warm day of May. I brew my coffee, pour a cup into my favorite mug, and add plenty of sweet cream. Then I head out to see who has decided to bravely poke its little green head out of the dirt to say good morning. I walk slowly through the dewy flower beds, enjoying the smell of the dirt mixed with decomposing leaves, and observing any signs of spring foliage. The thing about plants is that you can’t hurry the process; You are forced to yield to time. As Solomon states in the book of Ecclesiastes: “there is a time for everything, and this is a time of growth.”


You can be as frustrated as you want, but flowers bloom on God’s timeline, not yours. So you may as well grab some coffee and enjoy the season one day at a time.

In Oregon, we have a nice long growing season (zone 9a for you gardening nerds) where we get to enjoy beautiful flowers. We enjoy it more because we have just endured 8 long months of a cold, grey, windy, and rainy season. We earn our green state, and when June hits, it’s all been worth the wait. It’s no wonder that the Bible is scattered with plant metaphors and symbolism as they help us learn life lessons and teach us about the Kingdom of heaven.

Waiting for Spring each year is just a taste of the longer patience we exercise as we hope for the beauty of  God’s future promises: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis, 8:22). No matter how patient or dedicated you are, it can be hard to admit that the end result  of gardening is largely out of our control: the weather can surprise us, pests can sneak past our defenses. Sometimes we can do everything right, but that doesn’t ensure that our plants will always thrive. I am often surprised when a seedling that by all rights should have shriveled up and died takes off and astonishes us with gorgeous blooms. 

In my own life, I have times of rain, times of growing, and painful times of pruning. Then there are those sunny days when everything works out just right, my day has blossomed like roses. I would love to take the credit for these beautiful days but just like the flowers in my garden, there is a lot outside of my control. It’s difficult to admit: I don’t know what I need. Philippians 1:6 advises: “He who began a good work in my life will complete it.”. I choose to submit to His work because only He can search my heart and mind. Only He knows what I need to change and grow. To have peace and joy I must trust in the process of the Creator. I must place faith in the Master Gardener of my soul for His provisions: His love, attentiveness, timing, knowledge, and wisdom. The way to find peace is to remember this; That in winter, spring always comes eventually. So when I feel that first warm day, I pour a cup of coffee. I take a stroll through the garden and look for the small signs: That the work He is doing is producing growth. God always keeps His promise and He will not fail to finish what He has started.

Hope Wirta