Gardening and Videos

Yesterday I promised a peek at how I spent most of my day – which caused my blog delay.

I know there are many ladies my age – and quite a few older – who put in a full garden. I know that partly because several share over the year. I don’t. I have a container garden even though we have acres available. It’s what I enjoy – and what I can care for.

There were larger gardens in my past. Some were good, some pretty much burnt up or were waterlogged into inexistence. Most of that was due to the gardener, though.

This year the containers hold rosemary, blueberries and onions that overwintered beautifully. My great-grandson, Micah, loved picking blueberries last year and his fingers and lips will be blue this year, based solely on the number of blossoms. Yes, those are in a container, too – a big one! Tomatoes are a must – partly because I like the taste, but mostly because my Dad always had tomatoes in his garden. I don’t grow the okra he did, but do the squash.

Another portion of my day was putting into words what our church means to me and using Beloved Husband’s words so we could have a script and not stutter too much while making a video.

This coming Sunday our church celebrates its 60th anniversary. We’ve stretched it out ahead of time, worshipping in the two buildings used before our current sanctuary. One was the Community Center for Cottondale. It once was a school for the surrounding area. The other was moved several miles away to be used for a church in another town. It was good to worship in those buildings that have been preserved and remain useful – and used.

What I spoke about in the video was our bus ministry. After moving into what was a four-generation household, we waited a bit before seeking out a church home – but one came looking for us. My granddaughter’s school friend invited her to ride a van from a church six miles away. Within months, our multi-generational family moved memberships or were baptized there. Seventeen years later, we’ve either served – or have been served by – all of the ministries offered in our church.

Both my gardening and my church bear fruit. The theme of fruitfulness runs through the Bible, too. Not because of simple agrarian cultures, but fruitfulness is a necessary part of life. As technologically adept as our world is today, good harvests are absolutely necessary for life.

Right in the middle of the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus speaks to His disciples about harvesting:

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. (John 4:35-38 KJV)

As He sent disciples out two by two, He also mentioned harvest:

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. (Luke 10:2 KJV)

The very least – and I do mean least – we can do is pray for those who do labor for the Lord. The best we can do is follow His will for our lives.