Nature Gives Hope

Sometimes gardens are good examples of spiritual truths and cycles.

I haven’t spent much time lately in the garden that I used to tend to so delicately.  It wasn’t until a few weeks ago after waking up at 4:30 a.m.and finding nothing more to do than pray, that I saw the true state of it.

The night before I had been to a growth group meeting with some other women of God. One lady had just come back from a mission trip to Paraguay and had shared her experience and pictures. They had spent time at a women’s prison where children were born and being raised. She told stories of life and loss.

While in prayer the next morning I felt I learned truths I hadn’t seen before and was thanking Him.  It seemed like one of those powerful, now I know why I woke up to pray this early, kind of mornings.  When I was done I heard little patterings.  Surely, I thought, that can’t be rain in the middle of the summer. But then the noise got louder so I opened the window to a downpour of rain.  I went outside to stand in the rain and felt joy building up inside me.

Then, I traveled to the backyard. I hadn’t realized what damage years of neglect could do–dead plants, dried leaves, and bugs eating up foliage. But there, dripping around all the dead branches were ready-to-pick dark purple grapes, dangling among the half eaten vines.  The damage looked salvageable.

Nature and prayer gave me hope that morning, but  I still had to harvest the grapes and more spiritual truths would be uncovered while in the process of coming against the worm that was eating the leaves.

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