Kaci, Kaci, sweet and spacey, how does your garden grow?

Yeah.  I know it’s cheesy.  I couldn’t find another homonym for my name and, well, I do TRY to be sweet.

I haven’t forgotten how to write.  I’ve just found a new creative outlet that has become all-consuming.  I have a garden.  Genesis 2:8 NLT Then the Lord God planted a garden…

This gardening thing has been WAY more than a gardening thing.   Other than our tomato plants (which were given to us by our favorite photographer friend), I grew everything else from seeds.  My dear hubby hauled a truck-load of two-year-old manure from local horse stables to the backyard and (pardon my language) spread that crap everywhere.  While he was spreading crap, I scoured the town for organic seeds of all varieties.  I waited for the best planting dates (as recommended in the Farmer’s Almanac, stuck seeds in the crap, and began watering daily.

In the small span of time that each seed spent in the palm of my hand, the parallel to life did not escape me.  Just like seeds, we are each born as little bundles of dormant potential.

The picture above was taken approximately one month after those little bundles of potential were placed in the ground. For that entire month, I spent hours each and every day, pulling weeds and watering.  Once again, the parallel to life did not escape me.  Constant weeding and constant nourishment is ALWAYS required before any fruit will be produced.

As the garden began to produce fruit, I discovered something.  I had planted eggplant in between tomatoes and okra.  It seemed like the perfect space when I placed the seeds in the ground.    At this point I’m going to dismiss the fact that I didn’t bother to read the plant heights on the back of the seed packets.  Let’s just go with…. “It seemed like the perfect space.”

Anyway, on the very same day that I found these…. I noticed that my eggplants had not really grown in about a week.  They still looked healthy and strong, but, in the shadows of the early blooming tomatoes, they were not growing.  And, I knew that they needed to grow a bit more before they would be able to produce fruit.

Once again, I saw the parallel to my life.  For months God had allowed us to feel unsettled in our church.  In the same week that I transplanted my eggplants out of the shadows of the tomatoes, God transplanted us out of our church and into a new one.  We still love the church where we’ve grown for the last four years, but we feel certain that our new church is where we need to be in order to produce the fruit God created us for.

The past two weeks have been consumed with harvesting and weeding.  Two more interesting parallels to life.  1: The more mature the plant, the fewer weeds that grow under it.  However, the weeds that do grow under a mature plant tend to be deep-rooted, hard to see, and more difficult to remove.  2: Once a plant produces fruit, it must be harvested.  Otherwise it will rot on the vine.

Today my garden looks like this… It’s no secret that my own childhood contained A LOT of crap.  But apparently, growing up in crap can produce quite a harvest. 😉

Isaiah 58:11  The Lord will guide you continually,
giving you water when you are dry
and restoring your strength.
You will be like a WELL-WATERED GARDEN,
like an ever-flowing spring.