Back to the Garden

A few days ago I paused at my front garden bed to assess the sad situation. Weeds have somehow taken over that little plot of land (again); my lament was not over the weeds themselves, but over the lack of time available to lose myself there digging in the dirt.

As I was turning to go off to wherever I needed to get off to, something beautifully, delicately purple caught my eye; one of the little lilac bushes I bought in a two-pack at Costco last year has bloomed!

It sort of got lost in the weeds, literally.

I’ve never thought about the possibility of blossoming when I’m “in the weeds” of days over-flowing with things that need accomplished. It seems like that might be a metaphor for living in this world with the hope we have because of Christ. It seems like something worth pondering. . .

My little garden has become a holy place for me, a place that reminds me that God is closer than the dirt under my nails; I don’t know if God has fingernails, but I wonder if he still carries a few specks from that time he scooped up the dust of the ground and then breathed the first human into life (Gen 2:7). Dirt and God’s breath are the DNA of God’s children, DNA that links us to creation . . . to the first living being . . . to each other.

Tomorrow is Earth Day, a day when we especially and intentionally recognize the importance of being good stewards of God’s Creation. It is important! Critically so. And for far more reasons than I had ever considered. I’m growing in my understanding of what God’s act of creation means for us as Christians, and over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some of the new ways I’ve come to see the unfathomable depth of God’s love conveyed through the story as it is told to us in the first few chapters of Genesis.

In the meantime I hope to snag a few minutes to get my hands dirty pulling some weeds; and if you happen to find yourself with some dust of the earth embedded under your nails . . . . . . know how beloved you are.

💙

Pastor Cathy