How does your garden grow?
A harvest should be shared.
“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.” —1 Peter 4:10-11
My father always had a big, robust garden. He grew up in rural North Carolina, where he acquired a headful of knowledge and years of experience on how to grow any Southern vegetable and fruit you can imagine.
My youth was filled with that garden’s benefits—goodies like vine-ripe tomatoes, fresh corn, earthy potatoes, green cucumbers, sugar baby watermelons, sweet strawberries, and plump aubergines. I also got to feel its drawbacks—shucking corn, shelling peas and beans, picking prickly cukes and okra, washing collards, weeding, plowing, and hoeing were all regular chores. In truth, my father did most of the work by himself. I helped just enough to occasionally break a sweat. But my whole family enjoyed the harvest—immediately, as in vegetable soup so fresh it smacked of Eden, and year-round in tangy pickles, preserved tomatoes, and flavorful green beans canned in Mason jars.
My dad didn’t just work in his garden. He toiled. He would come home after a hard day’s work at the Charleston Naval Shipyard to sow and reap in the soil. He invested into it labor, time, and even money: it isn’t cheap to purchase all those plants, seeds, and tools. The water bills added up, too.
Oddly (or perhaps not), my father never showed an ounce of pride in his verdant garden, though it was certainly pride-worthy. That was in line with his philosophy of life, which could be summed up in the words of Thoreau: “Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.”
But there was something even more impressive to me about my father and his garden. He always grew more than our family could possibly eat or preserve. A shrewder man might have sold the excess—easily—and recouped his investment and then some. My father, though, never sold so much as a kernel of corn.
Instead, he gave it away. Family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers were the beneficiaries of his generosity. If anyone found him and asked, he gave. When he had extra, he found others and gave. When I worked at the local library in college, almost every week in season he gave me bags of squash or peas or mustard greens to give to my coworkers. I’ll always remember how delighted and grateful they were to receive the fresh produce. It made me feel good, and I was just the deliverer. My father was using his garden to spread joy to people he never even met.
We all have a garden. God has given each of us talents that produce fruit. Whether it’s kindness, music, writing, hospitality, work, designing, building, listening, or any other valuable trait, God wants us to do with our gardens exactly what my father did with his: share its fruit generously with others.
I like to think when I write this devotion for you every month, I’m in accord with my father’s spirit. When I step into my classroom every day, I do likewise. It’s the same with every book and article I publish. Sometimes, when I get tired or selfish or discouraged, I think about quitting. Then I’m reminded of all those evenings after a full day of hard work, watching my father’s straining body push a plow through barren earth. Then I realize if there’s ever to be a harvest, I have to push on.
What grows in your garden? Does it lie fallow, or do you toil in it? What do you do with its fruits?
What will be the legacy of your harvest?
Graceful Contemplation
“You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God’s fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts.”
—Charles Spurgeon
Another Special Announcement
Last month, I told you about A Holy City Christmas, an anthology of Charleston-themed holiday stories that includes my piece, “Nine O'clock, December.” Proceeds from the book go to charity.
This month, I’m excited to tell you that book 3 of my Shadow Point series is now available!
It's the hot, “ceaseless summer” of 1978. A dangerous attacker stalks his prey in Shadow Point. Will anyone discover his secret identity before he steals the innocence—and lives—of Micah's family and friends? Burning with hidden dangers and budding romance, Shadow Point Summer is a heat wave of passion and suspense.
You can order both books now. I hope you will consider it!
Thank you for reading!
October flew by like a scared ghost! My amazing youth group continues to grow in their faith, and my niece and I dressed up at school for Buddy Day! I also spent a wonderful day crabbing with my son and brother, but alas, we didn’t get any photos (or crabs!)
