Master Gardener. When I heard about the program years ago, I decided to become one, once I retired. It took from the early 1990s until late 2016, over 25 years, for this dream to be realized. Now I get to play in the garden – and listen to The Master as He teaches me things I do not know.
Where did this dream originate for me? As a kid, Dad had each one of us hoe in the garden 30 minutes every day during planting and growing season. I HATED that chore as a child. Now, I cherish that precious time in the garden.
Dad saved seeds, ordered seeds, hoed up rows and mounded up mounds to plant seed, watered seeds and picked the fruit (and vegetables!) of his labors-or had us do all that. I grew up loving to eat fresh vegetables. It’s what I knew. Of course, Dad shared his abundance with anyone and everyone who wanted fresh veggies.
Mom; flowers were her thing. She grew the most beautiful pink hydrangeas that covered the back of the house, a purple clematis that clambered up the corner of the porch and daffodils that delighted me. Iris, daylilies and gardenias grew there too. In the summer, she grew moss rose at the corners of the flowerbeds. I even named one of my cats Mossy after those little beauties.
Frankly, I preferred planting with Mom versus hoeing with Dad. Mom and I would load my little red wagon with compost. FYI-for you city girls, that’s really aged manure. Just sayin’. Somehow God takes that stinky stuff and breaks it down into a nutrient rich soil that stuff grows in.
We dug a new bed, removing the grass and weeds while enriching the soil with that crumbly dark compost, creating a place plants flourished, whether we planted bulbs, tubers, rhizomes or seeds.
Dirt covered the seed. Water dripped (or drowned if this kiddo got too rushed and rambunctious) onto the seed, sometimes from the sweat of our brow, helping the seed germinate, sprout and grow. Out to the dark, dank compost, seeds sprouted and pushed through in search of daylight. Sunshine nourished plants, producing chlorophyll – resulting in green growth, beauty and food.
It’s kinda like God, The Master Gardener and Creator of all. God created man out of dust, breathed life into him and placed him in the garden of Eden with a job to do.
The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend
and watch over it. Genesis 2:15 (NLT)
Yet God kick him out when man made the choice to eat the forbidden fruit. Sin entered in. What bitter consequences come when we break faith with God.
By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return. Genesis 3:19 (NLT)
How does this apply to what I learned from planting at Dad and Mom’s side?
The richest dirt was made from adding the darkest, smelliest, most broken down manure (yucky messy) stuff into our soil. Add water and sunshine.
The richest lives are made when we turn to God and let Him plant a seed of hope in the darkest, smelliest, broken down, yucky, messy stuff in the soil of our lives (or is that the soul of our lives?) and water it with the water of Life, the Living Water.
Growth comes when His Son shines on the seed of hope that breaks out of the dark into the light. The disaster and destruction that the enemy throw our way are destroyed by the One who came to give us life abundantly.
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give
them a rich and satisfying life. John 10:10 (NLT)
So sit in the garden with The Master. Let Him plant seeds of hope in the darkness of your soul. The water of Life-and possibly your tears-will nurture hope and The Son will shine. It’s a promise; a rich and satisfying life.
PS-Have you noticed-only God creates seed?