Garden Planting 2008

Garden Planting 2008, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

Before leaving Morgantown for Wilmington, I had to accomplish at least one last task. I had to get my garden planted. As gas prices sky-rocket, and people look to save money, gardening may be one way to do just that. Gardening is filled with spiritual lessons too. Many of Jesus' parables had to do with farming and planting seeds and things of that nature.

One of the most important parts of the garden is the soil. Last year, I converted part of my yard to a garden, and I mixed in about 400 lbs of topsoil and humus to improve the quality of the soil for the first year--I did the same thing this year. I also burned off the remnants of last years garden so it could be more available for nutrients for the current garden.

My roommates, my buddy Curtis Delong, and I all spent time turning over the soil with shovels. Then we ran a small mantis through the soil. We ran the mantis through about three times, to break up clusters of hardened soil, separate rocks, and get the soil broken up fairly deep. You see hard, clumped soil is not good growing soil. Imagine trying to grow plants in soil that isn't well cultivated.

Now imagine our hearts before God. God softens our hearts, so that we might receive his word more easily. We can also do things that help cultivate his word and His life in us. We can allow our hearts to get hard, and that's when we need Him to bust up the soil. We can also prepare the ground of our heart for the seed of His word and watch for abundant growth to take place.

On the morning of our planting, we had to quickly cover the seeds of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers we planted because there were birds circling all about waiting for an opportune moment to pounce. There's so much that goes into that initial preparation of a garden. If you take the time to labor in the beginning of the summer to insure that the soil is well prepared, you can reap dividends by the end of the summer in a bumper crop. Most people don't take time to prepare the soil though. They just dig and throw some seeds in the ground, and they wonder why they don't see much produce.

As you read this, consider taking some time to prepare the soil of your heart to hear from God today. What might be helpful for you to soften your heart? It's worth taking the time to break up those hard places so that Christ might reign more fully in your life.