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/.