Gardening Update

We are headed back into triple digit territory this week – just when I thought fall might saunter in  . . . and just after I made a modest investment in more flowers for the garden!

New editions

The former hot spell a few weeks ago wilted so much, I thought some fresh flowers and plants might celebrate the new season. I shopped carefully for drought tolerant and sun-dependent additions. I bought some zinnias, plumbago, and porchulaca, some plant food and a Mexican-made planter to keep the black eyed Susans company.   

I got started early Saturday morning – stopping only when my eyes stung with perspiration. In the midst of potting new plants, I repotted a few old plants, and fed the lantana and morning glory that had survived. The Texas geraniums had survived – even if with few blooms. One plant flourished – sorry to say, I don’t know its name.
 

What is this blooming thing?

 But what delighted me when I closely inspected it – the impatiens I had rooted from a broken branch lived and flourished in the heat and haphazard watering that has been my recent gardening habits.

Survivor!

It was confirmation that a little shade and a little water can overcome lazy gardening habits. But the wonder is not a pass so that I can be careless with the newbies – especially if the heat and drought linger.

The blooming impatiens was like God saying to me – You gave up tending this plant, and yet I nurtured it.  Seeing that little basket, from my kitchen window, prods me to think again about my prayer habits. Prayer is doing what I can and trusting God to do what He has promised – even when I see no help – relief – on the horizon. (Maybe I need to reread Habakkuk?)

I don’t see how things can work out in Syria, or Egypt, or the Sudan. But that doesn’t mean I can give up praying for the relief of all those folks, and for humility and wisdom for all our leaders.

I don’t see how the church is going to cope with the assaults on Christ or His commission. But that doesn’t mean I stop praying and serving.

I don’t see how some of our family and friends can bear up under their loads – but that is no pass from prayer.

“This is God’s Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God: ‘Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.’” (Jeremiah 33:3)

Time and weather will wither that happy little impatiens plant – the first cold snap will destroy it. But I hope I remember its lesson.

God makes not His abode in a narrow heart. 
(Jacopone Da Todi)