Garden Harvest

Yesterday, I knew that it was supposed to be the last really nice day and rain would begin, so I decided to go out and begin preparing my garden for winter. In my mind, I was thinking about how the weather had been so cool that my garden was not the only one that was behind in its production this year. Feeling a bit discouraged that my corn and tomatoes were not very plentiful, I set out to salvage what I could of the fruit of my labors.

I planted 8 potatoes in July and I knew there were some potatoes under there and I wondered if there would be many to store for the winter. Yet, by the time I got done, what a bounty!! I had a whole wheelbarrow full of potatoes and most of them are quite large!! Then I started lifting the vines to see what my pumpkins are doing and I found at least 12 pumpkins of Jack-O-Lantern size. They have not turned orange yet, but they are starting to turn. I was happily enjoying the thought that my grandkids could pick pumpkins from Grandma’s garden this year as I picked another bucket full of green beans.

As I was harvesting and cleaning my garden, I began thinking “well even if the economy falls flat, we will have lots of potatoes, green beans and beef to get us through the winter!” (We have a small herd of beef cows too). Immediately I realized that this cool summer has actually benefitted some things in my garden and has given the cows more to eat, since the grass has not dried up as much this year. Was it what I thought I wanted? Not really,I wanted longer spells of warm weather so my tomatoes and beans would flourish. But God is amazing! He decides what will thrive and what will wither, but He is always faithful and knows what is best, even if we don't always agree at first. Sometimes we miss the miracles and divine providence He fashions, because we are focusing on a specific outcome – like I was with the tomatoes and corn. But if we really look, we realize that there are many underlying miracles that we might have missed if we didn’t choose to look at Him instead of our circumstances.

In this case, it was a simple realization that this actually was better. For instance, potatoes and beans are easy to store through the winter. When I put up corn, I cut it off the cob and freeze or can it. Whether you freeze or can tomatoes, they are much better with the skins peeled off. So corn and tomatoes take more work to store. There is a big sale on canned goods at the local store, so I can go buy canned corn and canned tomatoes fairly inexpensively. Not to mention the fact that the blackberries and blueberries were late this year too; but because my job kept me so busy all through the summer and I now have some time off, I have been able to pick and freeze some of those this past week too. That is providence!

These are just a few minor examples of how the Holy Spirit so faithfully turns my whining into praise and thankfulness! When we keep our eyes on the Sovereign God, He really does turn our mourning into dancing and our sorrow into joy. That's miraculous!

My friend Annie reminded me of this verse as we had lunch the other day, and it so aptly seems to fit our Christian walk in what could be a very scary economic time in our nation: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" ( Matthew 6:28,29).

Oops I’d better go – gonna make a blackberry cobbler!