How Does your Garden Grow?

I love to work in the garden! I have ever since I was a child in Nigeria and used to putter around in the garden with my Dad. He and Mom had a giant garden and I used to "help" them, often. I mostly remember puttering alongside Daddy. He even gave me a small section of land which he said could be my garden and I could plant anything. I had three siblings but I don't think any of the others took to it quite like I did. I loved digging in the dirt!

I still love it and have had a garden all nearly thirty-nine years of my married life.

This year, I am particularly excited about it because, with the help of my youngest son, I moved my garden from where it used to be to the other side of the yard which gets more sun. The house I live in already had a garden area when I moved here in 2003. But the neighbor's tree, just across the fence from it has grown and grown, blocking more and more of the sun over the years.

This year, I have a new raised garden and can't wait to see how it produces! So, today, I am sitting at my desk, sweaty, dirty, and oh so happy from a day of planting filled with high hopes for the growing season ahead. And all of this gardening makes me think of one of my favorite gardening-related Bible verses:

Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12

Through my Kitchen Window

Springtime and Earthquakes

Spring has finally come! This has been a long, hard winter here in Kentucky. My youngest child missed more days for snow this past January than I can remember in the 28 years that I have lived here. February and early March were not much better, except that the cold snow turned into cold rain….but today has been beautiful! The sun was out, flowers are beginning to bloom and the temperatures are climbing higher and higher.

As I am enjoying the joys of a new, warmer season, others half way around the world are suffering beyond belief. Oh, the agony our friends in Japan are going through after the devastating earthquake last week. I have lived through many difficult days in my life but I don’t think any compare to what the Japanese people are experiencing right now. They are in my thoughts and prayers.

How does a person make it through such loss? The words of Habakkuk come to my mind. In Habakkuk 3: 17-19, the prophet wrote:

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail,
And the fields produce no fruit,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold,
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength,
He has made my feet like hind’s feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

May the people of Japan come to know God and His faithfulness in this difficult time.