Every year it’s the same story for me, I can hardly help myself. An ever changing landscape requires new plants, new plants require this life giving collection of elements… H2O (water). But this is the year I bit off more than I could chew combined with nature’s lack of cooperation. I was beginning to get into a mode of triage. What is the most important thing to salvage and what is just going to burn up. Thank God some good quality rains came along and is moving everything forward… for now!!
The book of Psalms is a collection of wisdom poetry and the first chapter was chosen to be the first chapter because it had a story to tell about the rest of the chapters.
“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. That Person, is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither-whatever they do prospers.”
A tree planted next to its source of life is a great recipe. Once established, that tree will flourish. Paul invites the Ephesians in chapter 3 to be rooted and established in love, God’s love; a love that is wider, longer, higher, deeper than any stream or body of water. A life giving force that you and I have to choose to plant ourselves next to.
Plant yourself outside of God’s natural design for life and see how hard it is to flourish. People do this all of the time and blame God. Plant yourself on a dry sandy mound in the desert and see how well it will go. But I like it there, that’s where I want to be, everyone else is trying to plant themselves there. Well…
The writer of Psalms recognizes that God has created this world and our hearts to flourish in a certain way. We can heed the way and flourish, great gardens and God’s people are made in this way. We can reject the way and people will say they don’t have a green thumb or that God isn’t good. There is a common denominator in all of this.
I pray your gardens become rooted and established in good soil, even more that your heart becomes rooted and established in the overwhelming love, generosity and mercy of God.
Truth, Grace, and Time 