Tips for the garden

This week is on Jeremiah 17:5-8:

This is what the LORD says:
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

My gardening skills are notoriously weak. Anything I grow turns out to be about half the size of anything found in my father's garden. I can water, supplement the soil, weed religiously, plant in advance, and so on, but my father's garden always takes the prize. No matter what efforts I take, it always falls short of what my father can do. He has such abundance that he has to give it away, whereas mine provides only the occasional side dish to meals whose ingredients I have to obtain elsewhere.

My garden looks a lot like the life of the cursed man in Jeremiah's prophesy. It looks wilted, bears little fruit, and generally doesn't win any prizes. It falls short in pretty much every category it can be judged on. My father's garden is the one that looks like God's blessing. It's not neat and orderly, but it does the job extraordinarily well. It has no worries. He never has to hope he gets squash or tomatoes, or wonder why something he planted never matured.

The cursed man's efforts are no good. He says "I can do this myself," but he can't. If he does get something done, he doesn't say "God blessed me," but "Look what I did all by myself." He's proud. He doesn't ask for help. He neglects and is neglected. No matter what he does, it doesn't seem to prosper.

The blessed man has a relationship with God. When something goes well that he didn't do himself, he knows exactly where it's come from. When his efforts fall short, he knows who to turn to. When he needs something extra, God's resources are the limitless stream. Bad stuff doesn't ruin him, because he has hope in an eternal boundless God, who he knows. He's not trusting in the tooth fairy. He's confident in something demonstrably real.

In examining our lives, it's important to ask where we're planted and who is caring for us, our Father or our own black-thumbed hands? We need to connect to God like roots connect to water. Sometimes things go badly for us just because that's how life is. In being connected to God, we know we'll bounce back. Other times, the reason things are a bit droopy and fruitless is because we've lost our connection. It's important to be able to know the difference. If you're not connected, get connected. And if things got a bit fruitless and pest-ridden, call on God to restore you to life. As Christians, we don't have to be cursed. The blessing of a fruitful fulfilling life is ours.