Summer.
These are some of my favorite days. But this may not be for the reasons you would think. I actually dislike the heat and constant sunshine. I get overheated way to easily. My body is happier in 50 degree temperatures. In fact, if you asked me, I’d say fall and winter are my favorite seasons. I enjoy getting bundled up, breathing in that brisk air, and watching how nature changes as the cold sets in. So why are summer days some of my favorites? Well, because I get to be in the dirt!
I’ve spent the last few years cultivating a garden and teeny tiny flower farm. And this whole process is a complete joy to me. Very few things make me feel more satisfied than looking down and seeing ridiculously dirty, roughed up hands. Even better than that, when I sit down at the end of a hard day’s work, I am at peace. You see, working with the dirt connects me with my Creator. When I’m in the thick of it, working hard, I am with Him.
Growing things, to me, is like a microcosm of this life and all its depths. It begins with cultivation –preparing the ground for its coming “residents.” Then planting –delicately placing each seed into its new home. Add sunlight and water, and that seed transforms into something new. The seed germinates, turning into a seedling. And that seedling, with more water and sunlight, grows into a plant. The plant continues to grow, with all kinds of struggles and pains along the way, until perhaps it begins to bloom. A flower emerges from the plant. This flower, with the proper fertilization, may then produce a fruit. And the plant continues to bloom and produce fruit until the season begins to fade away and the plant goes to rest.
You are probably already catching sight of the uncanny similarities between the plant cycle and the life we experience. So it is that as I work my tail off in the garden, I am one with our incredible God. He reminds me that He is also working on me, building me up to produce fruit, bestowing His grace on me every single step of the way.
I say all this not merely to express how I love to grow and cultivate, but to say this:
If you are in a low place, lost, or in a funk, go find something that connects you with your Creator. DO something that reminds you of His process in your life. Take action. So that perhaps as you move your body, you will begin to perceive something much greater than yourself.
Maybe you know exactly what you can do to experience this or maybe you’ll have to try a few things out –that’s okay if so! Either way, I urge you, brothers and sisters in Christ, to seek to be one with Him.
John 17:22-23
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
