This has become something of a family ritual.
Every autumn and spring, we work together to clear the veggie patch and prepare the soil.
We then go to the nursery to choose seedlings we want to grow, and we plant them in the ground.
We water them, feed them, weed them, and eventually enjoy the satisfaction of eating home-grown vegetables.
We’re not an especially green-thumbed family, and our garden is never going to be the neatest and most productive, but it’s something we look forward to.
There is something very satisfying about watching things grow that you have sown, tended and nurtured. It is particularly satisfying to enjoy the fruit of your labours.
One thing I have come to notice with gardening, is how little you actually need to do to enjoy returns on your efforts.
I was reminded of this last summer when the most productive pumpkin vine I have ever grown came up all on its own and gave us many plump, tasty pumpkins.
We did little more than water it; God took care of the rest. It was a good reminder of how dependant we are on God’s gracious provision in so many areas of life.
God is not a passive participant in this world.
Some people have this idea of God sitting on a cloud watching the Earth from a distance, curious but not involving himself in the affairs of the world.
This isn’t the image of God that we receive from the Bible.
The prophet Isaiah, for one, sees God constantly at work in the world, speaking lovingly to his creation.
In Isaiah 55:10-11, he says: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
I find a great deal of encouragement in these verses from Isaiah.
They remind us that God is not aloof and absent from his children, but is interested in even the smallest and most insignificant details of our lives and wanting to help with them, too.
This includes seemingly simple things like making fruit grow and flowers bloom. It’s so easy to miss the everyday miracles that show God’s hand at work, even behind processes that seem so natural that we don’t recognise them as miraculous anymore.
Spring is a good time to witness God’s everyday miracles, and to remember whose hand is at work.
As you watch the flowers grow, as you see fruit grow, as you see new life burgeoning around you, remember the one who makes it all happen and keeps it all going.
Above all, remember that he cares for you, too, and is always there to listen to you!
Pr Matthias Prenzler, Trinity Lutheran Church, Echuca
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