A Life Analogy: God's Character In The Garden

Some people may think I'm strange but God and I have this thing going on in my garden. It's a relationship that started revealing itself to me many years ago. It's about Love, Understanding, and most of all - listening to Gods voice.

I happen to learn many valuable lessons in my garden, besides things like just pulling weeds, planting, pruning or sowing seeds. I learn about Gods character and how peoples lives resemble that which grows in my little patch of Earth.

One of those lessons came to me this afternoon when I was at my business. A young man, I'll call him him Tony for the sake of anonymity, happened to come to visit me - out of the blue. Tony has had a checkered past, to say the least. At one time he stayed with us when he was homeless, and my husband and I tried to help Tony get a job and get back on his feet.

This was about 3 years ago - so fast forward to today-

Tony showed up today and he still looked the same, but I could tell there was something different about him now- he had a more mature and positive outlook on life. He had done some "growing up". His circumstances had improved, but he was still having life challenges like we all face at different junctions of our life: career transition- life kind of stuff.

Which brings to me why his visit catapulted me back to my garden:

I thought back to 3 years ago when Tony stayed at our house and worked for a little while at our business. I had gone out and purchased a bunch of bulbs to plant in pots outside my business. At the time I did this we actually had 5 "displaced" people staying in my home- Tony being one of them, all "kids " under the age of 20-

We were doing an outreach to these kids to try to help them get back on track in their life, and our home and our business was to serve as a sort of a "springboard"- for what we hoped would be a positive influence in their life.

So about the bulbs I had bought-

I actually got all of my "kids" interested in planting the bulbs and I told them all that the bulbs represented themselves and that they needed to help me care for them. Well, needless to say, just like most moms, I was the one that ended up taking the most care of the bulbs, but they all enjoyed watching them grow.(They did help me plant them and water them at random times) They would also check on their growth periodically and even had "bets" to see who's flowers would grow the fastest and the largest.

As time went on these "Kadults" (Kid+Adults), as I like I like to call them, eventually went their separate ways and moved to different areas.

Although they all went their different ways, the bulbs have remained with me, and so has my love and hopes for these bright and sometimes needy kids. Not a week goes by that I don't usually get to hear from one of them , in one fashion or another. Sometimes they just "pop in" like Tony did, other days they text me just to say "I love you", other days they are challenging me to take on new and creative endeavors.

So today as I watered my garden, I looked at the bulbs that were growing with a new-found attention. I realized that somehow, somewhere, a connection with God had been made with these kids through the planting of those bulbs- that God, in His infinite love, was watching them-and that a seed had been planted in their hearts those 3 years ago, and that no matter what happened- that love between us could never be taken away from them or me.

So even though the bulbs will die back eventually, I know that they will re-emerge in the coming years, just like my "Kadults" will -perhaps a little unshapely some years, perhaps a little less colorful other years, perhaps even reproducing some years and fading back in others, perhaps, because I know how life is, some years some of them may not come back. Just like the ebb and flow of life, people can take different growing paths, just like our plants do. Some may need to be pruned more than others, some may need a little extra water, a little more sunshine, a bigger pot or maybe even a new yard to be planted in.

Whatever the outcome of these "Kadults", I know that God has touched their hearts and mine, through the simple gift of a bulb.

Another life lesson learned in the Garden of Life.