Making the most of it...

I've dreamed of my own vegetable garden for a long while. Fresh veggies, hens roaming, perhaps a peach tree, apple tree, small children devouring their harvest with wonder... a herb garden infiltrating my lungs with it's aroma, flavoring the food I lovingly create... a lilac bush sprinkled with butterflies... climbing jasmine over a seated arbor in which me and my love read and talk in the evening sun... lavender sharing it's perfume which sneaks in through my windows to greet me in the morning heat.

But, I had no where to make this dream come true. So, I gave up and waited for my garden.

My decision to try and grow on the tiny balcony was somewhat because Esther asked me if we could grow something. I didn't want to deprive her of that experience because in my heart I couldn't have the paradise my selfish flesh desired.

I needed to let life and beauty grow and nourish our families souls, even if from a plastic pot on the porch of a city. Indeed, perhaps there is something particularly special about green springing from the potted earth in a jungle of bricks, gray and telephone poles.

There is something miraculous about a seed germinating. An event so beautiful from something so unspectacular appearing. A brown or black seed is put in dirt. Every time I plant, I wonder : Can something grow? Will something grow from the dirt?

Yet, moist soil, air, sunlight and water combine and bring forth the bright green of new life surrounded in an otherwise lifeless pot of soil.

What joy and wonder a little garden on the balcony brings. So many teaching opportunities and also a reminder that, like a seed soaks in the basic elements contentedly and grows unhindered, beautiful, that we too should take what we have, no matter how basic and contentedly use it to bring joy and beauty instead of grumbling with dissatisfaction, wanting more and shunning what we have.

"Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, 'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,' so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid" (Hebrews 13:5-6)

"If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content" (1 Timothy 6:8)

"Besides You, I desire nothing on earth" (Psalm 73:25)

"But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment"
(1 Timothy 6:6)