Tending your personal garden – 18 March 2020

Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negreb. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping bearing the seed for sowing shall come home with shouts of joy carrying their sheaves. Psalm 126:4-6

We’ve come up against climatic conditions which have been harsh. We’ve struggled with the hard ground where stones and weeds abound. We’ve laboured in areas where there, seemingly, has been little fruitfulness and very little yield. Many times we may have felt that the work of our particular garden was too harsh for us to bear. Yet, the Creator is at work. We may not be able to see it but the tears of struggle and pain are having their effect.

They’re producing something underground which is taking root and shape. One day the tears will bring a crop and the crop will produce a harvest, even though we can’t see it yet, and indeed we may not see it in our own lifetime. Keep in mind that the sowing part of gardening is the most crucial part. The ground in itself can produce nothing until something is sown.

Let’s ask our Heavenly Father today to take our tears and pour them onto the soil of our lives to bring forth a good yield. Let’s do our part and be vigilant against the forces which would strangle the good seed so that it can’t grow and blossom. God’s adversary, his eternal enemy wants to use the weeds (sin) to rob us of a fruitful life. Negativity, self pity, ungratefulness, self idolatry all seek to take root and fill our garden (life) so that the beauty cannot be seen and the garden cannot be fruitful.

Prayer: Lord of the rain, Lord and creator of soil, teach us to water our gardens at the right moment in time. Keep us from the ravages of sin and hopelessness in good times and bad, in the hope of better seasons to come. Amen