This year at the insistence of an older gardening friend my husband started putting this special fertilizer on our garden once a week. We started this really because our older friend was persistent with his gardening enthusiasm. We thought, what could it hurt?
It hasn't hurt at all. In fact our garden is exploding with color and produce and beauty!
I took these two photos a few minutes ago before 7 a.m. We planted a few too many zucchini plants (but my husband is loving zoodles) and it can be difficult to find the zucchini. But that makes it like a treasure hunt! If my bees had survived they would been buzzing around the garden these days (though I saw a couple of honey bees buzzing around me earlier this week. I put some more lemongrass oil in my beebox in hopes of attracting a swarm....you never know).
Why do I share this silly revelation with you today?
Because it is a good reminder to me (and maybe to you too) that God gave us brains to use in all we do. Having a "green thumb" for gardening isn't a magical thing or a gift God infuses some with (though it probably comes a bit easier for us just like all things). Engaging our brains and learning into things we do can only help and may give us greater understanding in God's creation and creativity.
I think we humans sometimes try new things that have interested us only to quit too early or give up because we don't feel we have the "knack."
God doesn't call us to be quitters. He wants us to enjoy life and revel in it.
Ecclesiastes 9:7 and 9 says, "Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes -- God takes pleasure in your pleasure!
"Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange for the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!"
God loves to see us enjoying the simple pleasures life gives us.
Invest in life and people. Enjoy them all. I want to end with a quote I read this morning in a Bible study I am doing called Walk Like Jesus (I recommend it wholly). Author Dann Spader quotes an author named Robert Coleman from Coleman's book The Master Plan of Evangelism. This is what I will share with you. See below:
"The multitudes of discordant and bewildered souls were potentially ready to follow Him, but Jesus individually could not possibly give them the personal care they needed. His only hope was to get men imbued with His life who would do it for Him. Hence, He concentrated Himself upon those who were to be the beginning of this leadership. Though He did what He could to help the multitudes, He had to devote Himself primarily to a few men, rather than the masses, in order that the masses could at last be saved. This was the genius of His strategy."
Maybe you're wondering how this relates to the gardening lesson I shared (I am wondering too). Maybe it gets back to enjoying -- enjoying life and enjoying people. People know if you enjoy being with them. There are tons of people out there who want to be enjoyed, who want to be appreciated; who want to know they are loved. That's what we can do when we invest our time in them. Be their friend.
Jesus has called us His friends if we do what He commands (taken from John 15). We can be friends to others and to His creation (ah! There you go. That is kind of relating to the gardening thing).