Another Garden Epiphany

I love to garden. Fresh vegetables are reason enough, but it also reminds me of my grandfather who taught me when I was a girl. But the main reason is because that’s where God seems to send epiphanies my way.

The Master Gardener has inspired many blog posts through the years like why I believe God loves gardens, or How do you view life?, or Confessions about Sacrifices, or Our Soul Seeds, and even how Writing is like gardening.

Today it happened again.

I found this caged tomato plant blown over on its side. This is a dilemma. If I pick it up and try to restore it tall and straight, it may break off at the roots. You can see this plant is full of green Hanover tomatoes which I don't want to lose. So Hubby and I decided to leave it alone and let it keep doing its thing horizontally instead of vertically. Not the most ideal decision but we believe it's the best way to keep the plant productive.

As I stood and looked at the misaligned plant, God inspired my next garden epiphany—LIFE is like this. One minute everything seems fine and the next your world has completely changed. This happened recently to someone I love. One minute—vertical and normal—the next horizontal with a face-plant-fall he never saw coming.

Now this person is a deep person of faith and has taken this in stride. That's not always easy to do, but he understands God allowed this to happen even though he wishes God would have prevented this hardship. And while he is dealing with life from "horizontal," he is remembering his witness still matters even while working on restoring "vertical" again. I've heard him share with many people since his life changed how God has looked out for him from the moment he went "horizontal" and that he knows God will never stop doing so.

This is a great reminder-lesson from my tomato plant and my loved one. It's not where we are planted that matters or even the view around us, but that where ever we are, the Master Gardener is there hoping we will be productive bearing fruit for Him.  

And truly, does it get any better than that? Bearing fruit and bringing Him glory in the midst of our hardships—whether vertical or horizontal. Because He's there in the midst of it all.

What about you? Have you had any epiphanies lately? Any recent heart breaks that rocked your world? Please join me and share lessons learned and give hope to others.  

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