The Garden of Life

Spring has arrived! (Unless it snows. Let's face it: this is Arkansas.)

Aside from the arctic front that moved through today, dropping our temp highs about 20 degrees colder than what they had for the first part of the week, the depression known as winter numbness has been washed away with the potential for sweet smells of honeysuckle, the sight of daffodils blooming, and the invigoration of getting dirt underneath my nails as I start the process of bringing back to life the production of fresh produce growing as spring gives way.

Do I have my own garden? Nope. And it is a shame, too. One of my favorite movies is "Steel Magnolias" and my favorite character of the movie is overall-wearing, ugly-hat donning, tomato-picking character "Ouiser" (pronounced "Wee-sa") whose character embraces the Southern culture in a powerful way and delivers the statement, "Southern women are supposed to wear funny-looking hats  and ugly clothes and grow vegetables in the dirt. It's what we do."

Because that's what we do. And if you don't have a garden, you find one and work in it. 

So I found one, and I love it. Actually, there are four of them. These gardens that I am proud to be a part of exist in four locations--3 in neighborhoods that serve low-income families and the newest one at a church. The COHO Garden Club (or City of Hope Outreach) works to bring nutritional education as well as healthy food alternatives to the areas in which they exist to some of our community's most valuable commodities--our children. The kids love to be a part of the program and the looks on their faces when they start to see the seeds they've helped plant break past the surface of the dirt and start to take form is all anyone could ask for.


Last weekend, we all rounded up our tools (or borrowed some) and headed to the gardens so we could harvest what was left from fall planting and put down new soil and other things to make the garden fertile when planting time came around. At the location I was at for the majority of the time I spent gardening that day, we have two raised beds that sit inside an area surrounded with timber borders and topped off with mulch. We had put everything that was supposed to go into the beds out and were finishing things off by laying out the mulch when I started to wonder if we would have enough. I am definitely no mathematician, but if I had guessed, you couldn't have convinced me that two bags of mulch would have been enough to cover the space I needed them to. Nonetheless, I distributed the two bags all over the area while another volunteer and I started to space it out. Keep in mind, there was already mulch on the ground; this was just to add to what had been put down a season or two prior.

As I started to use the hoe to distribute the mulch throughout the bed, I saw where the old mulch was tossed up and quickly blended with the new, giving every square inch of that garden the facelift that it needed after weathering the dreary winter. My doubt soon turned to determination to make that garden look beautiful throughout because of the ability of the new mulch to bring life back to the old. Once it was all said and done, the garden was revived and ready for the spring crop to be planted so that those priceless faces from the families that they served would once again be blessed by them.

And then I began to wonder: How often do we doubt God's ability to breathe life into us again?

 I know that I have been guilty of focusing my eyes on the situation that is right under my nose rather than taking comfort in the  Almighty One's abilities to produce more fruit than I will ever need to make my life abundant again. He is the One who gives life to the weary, gives comfort to the hurting, gives hope to the hopeless. He is  the one who saw me at my weakest and loved me anyways. And He is the One that restored my life when my garden had no foundation whatsoever, but rather withered up vines that barely had any life left.

The Great Gardener planted seeds in my life and watered them, giving me hope again. He restored my soul. He took the broken pieces of my life and replenished my thirst for living for Him, praise His Holy Name! 

Friend, do you doubt God's ability to save you? Or even to love you? Have you found yourself questioning whether or not God can take the circumstances of your life and make them beautiful again? Now is the time to let go of the uncertainty and allow God to reclaim the specific call that He has on your life and has since before you came from your mother's womb. His love has never changed for you and if you were ever like me and doubted God's ability to love you after you stopped loving yourself, know that it is not true. You. are. loved.

My Father,
Thank you for always giving us enough of what we need. You have an amazing way of taking our doubts, fears, or insecurities and replacing them with assurance, peace, and love. Jesus, you said that you chose us and appointed us so that we could bear fruit that would last. Help me to remember that I have been chosen to take your light to a hurting world that needs nothing more than to know that you love them, too. Please replace my insecurities with the truth that I am a chosen child of Yours; that nothing I can do will change your love for me, and that while my garden may need to be pruned from time to time, as long as you are the One doing it, it will continue to be beautiful because of who you are in me. Lord, if anyone struggles like this, remind them who they belong to. Remind them that they  are made beautiful because of who You are and they are commissioned by you to bring hope to a weary world.

In the name of Jesus, name above all names, keeper of my heart,
 Sarah Kathryn

Friends, if you are interested in learning more about COHO, please visit the website http://www.cityhopeoutreach.com, or you can find them on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cohoconway or  https://www.facebook.com/groups/391741121029110/.

When He moves

Just as I was writing out this title, I started wondering to myself if I had used this title previously. It sounds familiar, but who knows. Of course, the "He" is God. There have been times in my life when I could clearly see God's hand print all over details that pertained to my day; in the same way, there have been times where I was so busy that the storms of Hades would have had to strike me down in order to get my attention. It's not that I don't always want to feel close to God (or more specifically, the Holy Spirit) but teaching oneself to slow down is something that I am convinced will happen in retirement. But sometimes that is what God wants us to do: slow down and listen for Him to speak.

I guess you could say that I am a pretty "Type A" person. I like my ducks in a row and when one of them takes a dive in the deep end of the pond, I can lose my cool. For instance, I set my alarm for 5:00am. I know that my snooze goes off every 9 minutes. I can hit my snooze 4 times and rise out of bed exactly at 5:36am, just enough time to get my shower, put my clothes on, and start putting my makeup on before I have to try to wake everyone else up.  Clockwork.

Friday was different. Instead of hitting the snooze 4 times like usual, I got out of bed at 5:09 (One snooze hit) and was pretty proud of myself when I realized that I was like 29 minutes ahead of schedule. Enjoying the leisure time that God had given me, I suddenly felt urged to pray. I have some very specific people that I am praying about and their struggles with drug addiction and without worrying about the time (you mean we don't all do that?) I started crying out to God. "Break the chains, Father! Save this family! I have seen your glory, let me see it again!" Before I had a second to worry about the time, I realized that my hair was almost dry yet I was still in the shower. The Holy Spirit was so thick and no, it wasn't simply the steam if that is what you are thinking. My heart was beating fast and the voice that I was hearing was my Father telling me that He had heard my cry for these friends and He was already there to take care of it.

Singing God's praises all the way to work, I walked into my classroom and proclaimed to a friend that God was going to heal some people that were struggling with addiction. The Spirit moved through that room as my friend showed me the goosebumps on her arms. At recess, a little boy who usually won't come near me on the playground shadowed me for the longest time until I looked down to see him holding my hand, willingly. Was the Holy Spirit the cause of this?  During my lunch break, I found a secluded place to sit and listen to worship music when a co-worker came in and I shared with him what I believe was the work of the Holy Spirit throughout my day as he teared up and lifted his hands in praise as he left the room. Was I actually becoming what I had asked God to make me? A vessel that God could use to bring a message to a world that so desperately wanted to hear it?

The last few weeks have been difficult, and worrying has become a regular part of my day. Every day I ask God to take care of something specific and the next day it is something totally different. Is it possible that this whole time God has been trying to show me that instead of focusing on my own life and what He could do for me, I should have instead been looking at what He could do for others if only I asked? And instead of being stuck looking at the time and the things on my to-do list, I should have surrendered my own life circumstances  so that God could make the move that He so desperately wanted to make?

There's one final thing and I will shut up. Every day I walk up the street from my house to meet my kiddos when they get off the bus. During this time, I usually play on my phone or have conversations with the neighbors... Piddle around. This particular day was a little different. As I was stressing out about something in my own head, I looked up and noticed the tree that I was standing under.  It was a pretty ordinary tree, but it wasn't the leaves that caught my attention, it was what was looking at me through the leaves. I tried to snap a picture, but the quality wasn't very good and you won't be able to see what I did in the picture I will share with you. It was the moon. Now I know it is not unheard of to see the moon during daylight hours, but as soon as I noticed it, a plane came into sight. The plane was going really fast and for a second I thought I was going to be able to take a picture of the plane flying toward the moon, but my angle was bad and I ended up crossing the street to try to get a better picture. As soon as I snapped the shot of the plane during this cat-and -mouse game I was playing, I realized that maybe there was a message that God was trying to tell me. The final picture that I took was of the plane flying above the tree, with a bright streak spanning from the left side of the pic to the right side above all of it. It was the sun.I realized that sometimes it is easy to get so fixated on what life looks like from the pilot's seat that we neglect to see that the one who created it all controls it in the palm of His hand. When my life looked like a plane crash was about to happen, realizing that the One who holds the entire universe in His hand gave me a reason to quit looking at all the factors that could cause me to panic and instead look to the Son who holds ME in the palm of His hand.

Beloved, you are a treasured treasure. Your life matters to Christ, and He died to prove that to you. I believe that God the Father, His Holy Spirit, and Christ Jesus want to walk through life with you and if you allow them to, they will move in ways that only they can. All throughout the Bible, you will find a message of love that comes from a Father that wants a relationship with His kids, but we have to allow Him in. Matthew 6:33 tells us to "Seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you." The next time you feel like the pilot of a plane that might be coasting along with nothing significant to report, or spiraling out of control hoping for a rescue, look to the One who holds the universe in the palm of His hand.

He knows your name, He knows your heart, and His love for you is perfect in every way.