Garden Faith

Do you know the saying, “out of sight, out of mind”? Well, it is just a cute saying, but I often forget things and so this story begins. I went out to the backyard one day this spring and spotted my large flower pots. I said to myself I should try (again) to grow some tomatoes in the pots this year. Well, I walked over to one of the pots and noticed some small but healthy-looking plants growing in one of them. Since I am very ignorant when it comes to identifying green things I wondered what they were. There were actually three plants right in the middle of the pot. They didn’t look like any weeds that I’d ever seen before so I thought I’d leave them alone and see what would come up. I decided to move the pot to the front yard along with the others so they could receive more sun and I could water them better. I told a friend that I didn’t know how those plants got there so I figured that God had planted them. I know He gives His children good gifts. It looked like these mysterious plants could use some nourishment so I went to the store and got some of that “miracle” food. Soon the stocks grew taller and then I saw some buds. It was very exciting! A friend came by and said. “Hey those are nice lilies!” Like I said, I don’t know flowers very well, even though I love to work outside in the dirt. So, what do you know? They were lilies! How lovely! But I still wondered how did God plant them there? After mulling this over in my mind for days the Lord helped me to remember. Over a year ago I was given the dying Easter lilies from our church and told to plant them in the yard. Well, I couldn’t see a good spot in the yard and the pot was empty so I plopped them in there and promptly forgot about them. Now they are blooming after I wondered a bit if anything would happen. Did you know that the blossoms first curl up and look like they are dying before they actually open up?! Seeing these gorgeous flowers open before my eyes is a good reminder to me. Our heavenly Father knows our needs even before we do. He provides the most basic need of food, water and clothing, and just as important He is the One who brings life out of death. As a dead lily is put in the dirt, it then rises to new birth! “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved...” Ephesians 2:4-5


“Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? 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. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Matthew 6:27-30
-Peggy