Since my post last month and my search for clarity amidst chaos, God has been giving me direction of how to spend my time and who to turn to for help. One of the more pressing promptings I have felt is to plant a garden.
When we first moved into our home two and a half years ago, one of the reasons I fell in love with it was the planter in the back yard. I had good intentions to make it into a wonderful garden, but it has never been high enough on my priority list. So it has gone through times of being cleaned up, times of prosperous weeds, and times of dead weeds.
And as I was searching for clarity and direction, I wondered why this was my next step. How was planting a garden going to help the health issues I have been having or bring rest to my worried heart? I am still not sure exactly how the Lord plans to do this, but I know that even in the last few days as I have pressed forward in faith to learn a new skill, I have already felt the Spirit teaching me, little by little.
After three separate tries to spout my seeds, I finally had luck today. My zinnia seeds spouted! I had a few days where I was disheartened by no results, but then did some more research and tried a new method, and gave those seeds another chance.
As I went to check the seeds today, I tried not to get my hopes up, but when I saw a tiny little tail peeking out from the seed, I practically jumped for joy! I did it!
Then I realized that my next step after this exciting journey was to bury this brand new sproutling in the dirt. In the dark and the dirt.
Sometimes I feel like that little sproutling. And the corona virus is the dirt. I had hope and had grown and then I got put in the dirt and the dark.
But there is a reason that faith has been likened to a seed. Sometimes it can feel small, but after being nourished it can grow and become mighty.
As I have been pondering this idea, I spent time studying 1 Thesselonians 5. Paul speaks of the Second Coming and how it will come as a thief in the night–an oft-quoted verse. But as my study continued, I really enjoyed the verses that came after.
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Ye are children of the light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor the darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thesselonians 5:2, 4-8
I go back and forth between feeling hopeful that this pandemic will blow over and worried about what will come after and what life will be like when lock downs are lifted. And partly worried that I have not properly prepared myself for this time before the Savior comes.
We can use fear to think that we will not know when Christ comes and it can incite panic. Or we can realize that our faith, or obedience and our listening to the Spirit is what gives us the light to see what is ahead and to know how best to spend our time, how best to use our resources and how best to rely on God, rather than man.
We are children of the light and we know more than we think. And even if we must be buried once we spout, it is only so that we can later bloom, grow and thrive in the light of Jesus Christ and make the the world more beautiful and hopeful as we await He who will bring everlasting peace, love and light for all.
We are meant for the light. And we are meant to grow and shine for all to see, and continue to point to Him. Even in the dark. Even in quarantine, we can still shine.