The Garden and the Soul

Jane Korvemaker finds parallels in her attempts at gardening and in growing in her spiritual life.

I am not a very skilled gardener. I seem very adept at over-watering tomatoes (thereby contributing to the condition called Blossom-End Rot) while under-watering the rose bush (nearly killing it). And yet I persist in gardening not because I’m necessarily good at it, but because there’s a joy that I receive in spending time tending and caring for these plants that provide beauty and nutrition.

The Canadian climate for growing many things can be rather harsh. I live in the Hardiness Zone 3b, where plants only receive the heat they need to grow from the end of May until mid-September; for them to over-winter they need to survive in low temperatures of -34C to -37C (-29F to -34F). Our season is short and followed by intense cold.

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Surprises!

Yet there are surprises that turn up. Due to the freezing winter temperatures penetrating garden boxes, I’d read that I can expect to be planting seeds or seedlings anew in them every year; nothing would survive over winter. But instead, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the annual regrowth of strawberries! And though I only seeded lettuce one year, it has decided to make itself a constant companion in these boxes every spring. Indeed, there were so many lettuce plants this year that they crowded the tomatoes and strawberries! These have been surprising gifts amid my tendency to pay ill-attention to the needs of my plants.

Clearly the growth and health of these plants isn’t completely dependent on me!

The Garden and God

I can see reflections of my faith in these plants. I have intentions to develop my relationship with God, but like my gardening, I wouldn’t say that I’m especially skilled at cultivating the results. I have seasons where there is a beautiful rhythm and growth from the work I invest into this relationship.

But those seasons pass, too. When kids are home for summer things change; crises change things; many things change the circumstances! Whether the kids are younger or older, the intentional tending of my garden, this relationship with God, has fluctuations and inconsistencies.

It’s hard for me to remember that God is in the desert with me. Those vibrant and satisfying seasons where this relationship feels so substantial aren’t meant to be our only experiences of God. In the garden where, "Did we just eat meat on a Friday?’", "I don’t have the energy to pray," and "I’ve just lost it on my kids again," are real weeds that we sometimes allow to grow big, we are not abandoned by God. He is faithful to us beyond our faithfulness (intentional or not) to him, as He was to the Israelites.

Whether we can always intentionally cultivate our relationship or we have seasons where it feels like too much, God continues His own quiet tending and caring of our relationship, ready for the moment we turn our hearts to Him anew. And upon this return, we may be surprised to see the strawberries growing, or the lettuce popping up, because we neither plant it nor cared for it. But God is there too, and His work continues though we may be inattentive.

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Appreciating the Faithful Gardener

This year I was pleasantly surprised to find an unusual growth in one of my boxes: cilantro! Last year I bought a plant only to watch it die due to an aphid infestation. I didn’t even get to harvest any of it. Not only this, but the zone I am in is not hospitable to cilantro over-wintering whatsoever, let alone in an exposed garden box.

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I have intentions to develop my relationship with God, but like my gardening, I wouldn’t say that I’m especially skilled at cultivating the results. #CatholicMom

But there it was, nestled in front of the Creeping Thyme (which is mostly refusing to creep) and almost hidden by the Stonecrop and peppers. I’m reminded of one of Jesus’ parables:

He said, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear." (Mark 4:26-28)

I do not know how some things in my garden can grow, but I alone am not responsible for my relationship with God; He is here too. And He is faithful. I can be assured that what He tends and grows is for my good and for His glory. And I pray that you and I can look upon the cilantro, the strawberries, and the lettuce in our lives and be encouraged in prayer, thankful that we are not the only ones tending this garden.

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