Some of my best musings are done in a quiet morning garden. The air is cool before the heat of the day, the grass still dewy and my mind focuses on my tasks ahead. But somehow, in the midst of my mind churning with the to-do list, the garden always beckons me to be still. God talks loudest in these moments. It is like all of nature is a storybook for our lives, filled with rich lessons in the words of its living pages. We learn such endearing lessons here, and it is here we really see how simple His ideas for life are and how complicated we've made it.
As I came to the arugula patch, I started methodically cutting and sorting the row for the day's picking. Somewhere in this zen-like meditation, I began to realize some very important truths.
Take a look at that patch of arugula. Six rows, all different stages. Some cut and regrowing, some freshly cut and some to be cut later. Each stage is essential. Each stage the plants have experienced. It was then it hit me, and I understood the lessons of the arugula patch.
Sometimes life is like that full row, waiting to be cut. It's waiting. It's so hard to be in this stage. You are so ripe for something to happen in your life! You are waiting for that special something or someone, you are waiting for direction or guidance, you are waiting for forward progression. Life is bountiful and full, but you are ready and done with the waiting.
Othertimes life is like that row that is regrowing. It is fresh and alive, growing back better than ever. The leaves are tender and small and tasty. The hurts are past and this time of regrowth can give us a fresh perspective, a fresh hope and a fresh look. We gain confidence in ourselves and the world around us and are ready again for to be picked.
But sometimes we have been cut. Severed. Scarred. What is left doesn't look pretty. Discarded leaves, weeds, torn and ragged stems litter the dirt around us. There is nothing left to offer, nothing left to give. This will take some time. This will take some tending, some rain and sunshine both, to let us grow again.
The Good Gardener who tends us knows all this. He knows there are all these stages in a thriving garden. A good garden that has sustainability exhibits all of this. A good garden that endures must go through all these experiences. He is aware of this knows this when He plants the garden in the Spring. His tenderness says, "Child, you will flourish. In your time in life's garden, you will know much joy and much pain. Know I am watching and lovingly tending to you through it all".
So when your heart is still and your ears are open to listening, even the humble arugula patch can be a place where He teaches you the lessons of life!