I’ve had some challenges recently that have kept me from my garden this spring. My thumb isn’t the brightest green, but I still like to get my hands in the dirt, pray over my efforts, and see what might be hearty enough to survive.
The other day I noticed a speck of purple in my mostly-dead-leaf-covered corner garden. I was delighted to find a small grouping of miniature grape hyacinths standing tall among the brown. Truly, you guys, this little corner is a pathetic sight right now. But those little flowers seemed to be saying, “Don’t worry! We’ll still bring life among last season’s dead rubble.”
And why do you worry about clothes?
See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
Matthew 6:28
Then yesterday I saw a swath of white in my peripheral vision as I was pulling into the garage. Thanks to the hard work of a family who used to live in our home, we have nearly 12 square feet of the heartiest ground cover I have ever known in our front yard. Each year it comes back no matter how much it gets trampled, cut back, or under-watered. These little plants and their petite white flowers are determined to bring beauty to my fledgling front yard. And I’m so glad!
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for.
Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.
John 4:38
I have shared many times with you how hard work was engrained in me from a young age. For generations back, I can point to the faithful ones in our family who have done what was necessary – and then some – to take care of their household and neighbors. I am grateful for them and their examples. However, I am still a work in progress when it comes to resting as the scriptures have instructed us. “Work hard and rest well,” is something we hear frequently. I have the “work hard” part down…and the “rest well” piece is getting there! So reaping – or enjoying, in this case – the fruit of someone else’s work in my front yard is something I am intentionally attempting to embrace this spring.
Have you been in a place where it has been necessary to press pause on your typical efforts? A time when your energies have been more valuable elsewhere? Let me encourage you that it is OK to receive the blessing without laboring or spinning. There are plenty of seasons when we labor, and that is a good thing, but our blessing is not limited to the work of our own hands. Our Father invites us into his presence, and he blesses according to his will not according to our deposits.
Honestly, that flies in the face of my work-hard logic. Yet, I am loved by a God whose grace is what I depend on for salvation. I can’t earn it. None of us can. Allow his loving grace to spill over into the tired, dead places of your heart. Watch how beauty and new growth spring up! It is just another way he is whispering…
You are adored.
You Are Adored 