God in the Garden...

I recently started a small garden.  I wanted to be able to save money and feed my family some good healthy veggies.  I wanted to start from seed so I would know exactly what I was getting.  I wanted to start from seed as a challenge.  What I did not expect to experience so deeply and profoundly was a new sense of wonder for my God.  I did not expect that starting a garden would make me fall more deeply in love with my Creator.  I did not know that starting a garden would bring me closer to the God of the Universe. 

We are a now generation... We want everything right now with little or no effort.  We go to the grocery store and buy our produce completely disconnected from the process of where it came from and how it grew.   Even when we plant gardens we go to Walmart, Home Depot or the local nursery and pick up plants that are already growing and transplant it in the ground.  We see plants and trees all the time.  Not very often do you stop and think about where they came from or stand and look at the amazing wonder of God's creation, but we should. 

Starting anything from seed is the most amazing experience.  To see something so small and unassuming bring forth life makes you really start to think.  Seeing all the different seeds that I planted and then watching them sprout, little leaves coming through the dirt was such a high.  Then as they began to grow it was amazing to watch them produce after their own kind.  All the plants look completely different.  I was fascinated by the differences and impressed with my ability to recognize which plants were what. 

My plants are still very small and not producing fruit yet, but it's a joyful and relaxing experience to go out and look at them, water them, and meet with God in the garden and worship him for being so intelligent and creative.   Tonight I went to my Dad's house.  His garden is bigger and is producing veggies from planting much earlier than myself.  We walked through the garden together as he showed me all of his onions, garlic, 4 different types of lettuce, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes and potatoes.  The kids helped me pick lettuce and onions and garlic and in my Dad's garden I saw the hand of the God who gives abundantly.  My Dad said they couldn't pick the lettuce fast enough.  That brought me to a new place of worship.

This God who made us loves you and me so much that he provides for us abundantly even in this little garden.  This amazing Creator who put the stars in motion and knows each one of their names gave us little seeds to plant and grow food and then produce more seed to do it again and again.   We have lost so much of the intimacy with this God because we no longer grow our own food.  We need to go back to walking in the garden with God in the cool of the day and experiencing his awesome nature.  Seeing his provision in such an intimate way is beyond anything I have experienced so far.  God reveals so much to us through his creation, but we no longer stop to gaze at his creation anymore.  Our lives are full of other things, but He is there waiting for us to return to the garden and behold his Glory!!!