My Plans---His Plans

This year I got all excited...Excited about my garden.  I looked at pictures of gardens past and felt the sadness of loss once more as I considered the last couple of years, when my gardens were left largely to do their own thing and fell largely under the attack of deer-chew and weed-throttle.  I had a few planters of herbs I'd bought already started because during the planting time, I was sidelined and rehabbed after hip replacement surgery and could not plant.  But this did not buy me the satisfaction of starting the plants from seed and watching them flourish.

So this year I bought several items....perhaps not the wisest.  I bought a kneeling bench so that I can get down and weed the garden beds.  I bought several rolls of seeds for the shade and one for butterfly attraction.  But that  means that I will need to buy seeds and soil for the herbs and veggies I want to grow.  It means I will have to combat varmints like slugs and deer and bears...It means that every morning I must come out and water those plants....and cut and harvest and dehydrate them.  It's a lot of work for someone whose arms are not in the game with her....and whose back will scream with every lean.

It must be asked whether the joy of the plant and the fruit of the harvest are worth such expense in  money, sweat, and pain. I would say that it is worth it.  I would say that as long as it is possible; I will do it. But I do hope that I have the sense and the ability to recognize the time when it is no longer possible before I invest in supplies and strength and commit myself to the year.  I do know that right now, chances are very good that my hands will be unable to weed; unable to dig.....Will sheer determination do it for me?  I can  be pretty stubborn and pretty dogged in my efforts when it is for a purpose close to my heart.

True; this is a plan of mine and it may not be one that God shares a great concern over.  I know that he probably enjoys my enjoyment of it and I think that he loves it when we enjoy his creation,...However, it may also be true that he has his own plans other than those of which I know....maybe for me to meet someone in a doctor's office or hospital with whom to share his love.  Some work in another vein for his kingdom....or maybe, just for me to be laid up recuperating and learning, like Mary, at his feet.

I think there is little sense in trying to per-suppose what the Almighty has in store for me this summer.  I simply will talk to him and request one more year's garden to enjoy...and if his answer is a "no" then so be it....Help me O God just to see where you want me and what you want me to be doing and to do thus with my whole heart. God keep my fingers loose and my hands open that you may remove from my grip anything I hold too tightly and claim as my "right" to do or to enjoy.  And may all I do; all I undertake, be Solo Deo Gloria....