The Truth About Planting

 As I walk past my garden day after day, I remember this,  "Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."  (2 Cor. 9:6)  

I am both the soil for the Master to plant in and the sower of seeds, as well.   I planted well in the spring time. I was hungry for tomatoes, so I planted many seeds.  I was hungry for greens, so I made several rows, I thought of carrots and potatoes and so I planted from this, my heart's desires.  My eyes were hungry for flowers, so I sprinkled the reds, purples and pinks all around.  To the songs of birds I planted.   In the aroma of spring I opened the soil, with the memory of a hungry winter I planted each tiny seed with purpose.

And how I have feasted all summer long!  Not just in sweet fruit, but in the solidness of vegetable and vine, too.  I was like a woman longing for proof and surprised when it burst forth in the heat of the day.  We reap what we sow.  It sprawled out like a long legged man laying in the garden beds, and laying all over one another like giddy girls at a slumber party.  I needed to see it, this proof about the planting, this profound scene from the sowing.  I will always reap what I sow.  

And now in the fall as the flavors and colors reach their climax, it is time to sow again in this continuous cycle of planting.   Proverbs 18:21 Good words satisfy like a fine meal;  and in our gardens we plant for our harvests...the fine meals of our homes and tables.  The good words bringing in a bounty. The morning sun lights the stage for a second curtain call and I am ready to plant and ready to be planted some more.

 For each tiny seed tucked in like a question has bolted to a vision of His answer;  His goodness and truth about the planting.  I am both the soil and the sower and we reap what we sow.

   

20 

Proverbs 18:20-21New King James Version (NKJV)

20 A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth;
From the produce of his lips he shall be filled.

The Disposition of the Cross

From the disposition of the cross..... He rose from surrender.  As the shadow of evil engulfed  Him He did not blame, did not complain, did not reject those inhumane circumstances.  What circumstances has He called us to do likewise in?  What trials and sorrows can we throw open our hearts in surrender to and allow Him to do His work in us?

Do we think we do not belong in trials?  He did not belong there.  He did not deserve disrespect, cruelty, torture, judgment, and the sentence of death was not right for Him.  His surrender was paramount.  And I notice His surrender was so quiet, so un-regarded and missed while his friends plunged into grief and confusion. His friends thought they should fight off the attack, but His surrender to this plan that poured freedom through blood-- loosed joy through the shriek of death, and hope through the turning away from rescue........  has rescued me.  His "choosing" enabled me to choose.  His barter enabled me to ponder the riches of His sold-rock promises that I am covered up in;  covered rich, like the roots in my garden beds.

Today I came out to my garden to meet with Him, but instead I soar with Him.  I sit in the old metal lawn chair, but the heart floats buoyantly in this swell of knowledge too high for me!  And in it's vastness I know abundance so great that I can't find the end of it in any direction.  Like a happy swimmer in the middle of a vast ocean, my feet will never find the bottom, nor limits of His love will ever bear in on me.