Master Gardener

If my mind was a garden, it would be a wildflower garden today. Definitely not a neatly planted field in tidy rows, tulips never touching the roses or the daisies. I feel like I have a lot of divine thoughts going on and I can't quite figure out how to organize them. Each thought beautiful and precious on its own, but hopelessly entangled with the one next to it.

I think my brain needs some breathing space.

Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a season to everything, a time to plant, a time to bloom, a time to harvest, in gardening terms. I was reading in Leviticus 25 a couple of weeks ago and came across the schedule that God gave the nation of Israel for the planting of the fields. They were to plant their crop for six years and give the land a rest on the seventh year. The people cried to God, asking how they were to eat during the seventh year, and He promised that if they honored Him and followed His decree, they would be blessed by a crop of such bounty in the sixth year that it would last almost three full years. Imagine that?! Take a year off of planting the fields and be triply blessed? The math doesn't add up.

But, as the saying goes, God has His own economy.

Lately I feel like I am trying to plant in too many fields. I have hopes, dreams, and goals for myself, for ministries I am involved in, for my family and friends...all of these need the nurture and diligence that growing a garden requires. If you do not keep careful watch, the weeds will take over. I sometimes feel like it is up to me to keep all the balls in the air, and that is dangerous ground to be on. I pray for God's direction and guidance, to keep my focus clearly on Him, and to maintain a humble heart. (I'm really good at that last one...)

I think part of the reason that God wanted the fields left alone for one year was two-fold: one, to give the ground a rest so it could continue to yield a bountiful harvest, like farmers rotate their fields every few years. But more importantly, to remind the people that He was in charge of the harvest. Nothing they could do, outside of following God's will, would result in a triple harvest at the time they needed it. There is no way they could claim that blessing as their own doing.

So back to me and my extremely humble heart. If I stop working so hard trying to make everything work out perfectly, what would happen? Would the people starve? Would my dreams, the dreams God has placed on my heart, fail to come true? If I give a field of hope back to Him for a season, will it wither and die?

Or, like He promised the Israelites who followed His decree, will the yield be more than I could ask or imagine?

What if I only sowed into the fields He is directing me to and let Him be responsible for the harvest?

Lots to consider in this wildflower garden of mine.