So I'm weeding and looking and seeking what to pull -- Wait . . .
What do I see?
A bit of orange? Could there be a tomato getting close?
Yes, but better than that. There is one small red tomato hiding in the leaves! Woo-hoo, it felt like Christmas. I picked it and ran inside. I turned on the bedroom light and shouted at my husband (who was still sleeping due to having a pretty much sleepless night), "It's Christmas! Look!"
He pries his eyes open and says, "What is it?"
"It's a red tomato!"
It's more like Christmas than I initially realized -- I am the child who wakes up her parents at 3 a.m. to say its time to get up and open all the packages Santa left under the tree.
"Sorry," I say. I shut off the light and shut the door and go back to my garden.
But just like a parent's reluctance doesn't dim a child's Christmas excitement, my husband's sleepy response didn't lessen my thrill of that first peek of red in my garden.
Going back to my letter to my friend I will now write on the envelope that I have indeed harvested a red tomato (or I'll include a P.S. because I haven't yet put it in the envelope due to it being a bit damp from the very humid conditions outside).
Besides writing about the garden I told my friend of a struggle we are having and how it kept me up last night because I was fretting rather than believing. And I told her about a blessing in our lives that I didn't want but has turned out to be pretty darn incredible.
The blessing is named Maggie. She is a puppy my daughter's boyfriend bought her. Now when my daughter told me her boyfriend was buying her a puppy I said, "That's fine but she lives with him, and if you two break up he gets custody." For we've had puppies and they can make huge messes. Once we had a puppy who chewed up two pairs of brand new shoes I had bought for young Ryan that he hadn't even worn yet! I was mad. |
Maggie came visiting when the boyfriend visited my daughter last weekend. And that little puppy captured my heart for she is so sweet and gentle and yes, she runs around like a puppy but she loves to cuddle. And she loves my son Hawk and will run up to him and lick his face and lay right beside him quietly. Hawk likes her too. He even hugged her (the way he can). When I saw this all resistence to her was gone. She now pretty much owns my heart. I've even agreed to her staying here if the next place the boyfriend moves to won't allow pets.
I share all this because the thing I was fretting about last night is still very much part of our lives but even while dealing with that God gives us huge blessings. But sometimes we humans can get so caught up in fretting we don't enjoy them and we should. No, they might not take the problem away but they are a reminder of how good God is. If He can provide a red tomato and a gentle puppy He can surely provide anything else we might need.
Enjoy your life today. It is a blessed life even while dealing with impossible situations. Because "Nothing is impossible for God."
That's a promise.