Tag: Growing Things

Signposts of God’s Faithfulness

~ Joy O'Toole ~ Leave a comment
My rogue daffodils

Have I ever mentioned my rogue daffodils? They are God’s reminder to me each spring that

no matter the trials in my life,
in whatever circumstances I’m living,
wherever He is calling me to live by faith and not by sight,
I can grow and thrive and bloom because I abide in Christ and bear fruit in Him.

Years ago, daffodils grew along the path from our driveway to our front porch. Most of them had been covered over with so much soil that the only thing that grew were the green leaves. So my husband decided to dig them up and get rid of them. He threw them in a large heap of dirt and debris leftover from some construction work in our backyard. Later that summer, we had the mound of trash hauled away, forgetting about those daffodils.

The next March I looked out of the back window in my bookroom and to my delight, a stand of daffodils were popping up in the grass where that hill of dirt had been. They apparently had worked their way down into the soil and waited for their time to shine.

Every day, I peered out the window to enjoy the sight of these glorious daffodils in the middle of our lawn. Eventually, the flowers withered and my husband declared that they couldn’t stay there in the middle of the lawn. So he dug them up again and threw them in the back corner of our yard. An easement runs there and because we can’t do much with that spot, it has turned into a catch-all for gardening stuff, old Christmas trees, and piles of wood and sticks. Again, we forgot about the daffodils in a back corner we rarely entered.

Lo and behold, the next year those daffodils popped up again in the middle of debris and weeds and sticks!. This time I told my husband that they obviously belonged in our yard if they were that determined to bloom no matter how many times he threw them away. They stayed, and each year, when they bloom, I am reminded that God takes our circumstances—the garbage, the piles of sticks, the cracked wheelbarrows, the weeds—and He strengths and nourishes us so that we bloom right in that spot. Rogue means something or someone that doesn’t behave in an expected way, which describes the little flowers that were determined to grow no matter how many times they were discarded.

These daffodils are a witness, a signpost to God’s faithfulness and lovingkindness that I look forward to every year. It seems appropriate that they bloom every year right around Good Friday, when He took the darkest day in the history of the world and turned it into a glorious victory over sin and death. Even so, He will take our sins, our trials, our sufferings, and our pains and turn them into golden daffodils for His glory.

What signposts of God’s faithfulness do you have in your life today?

Gardens and Plans

~ Joy O'Toole ~ 1 Comment

 

March came in like a lion this year. The weather was cold and rain poured down all night. I sat inside my cozy little book room and chose to focus on the spring that is just around the corner. I ordered flowers in purple, red, yellow, and bright pink and then chose seeds–zinnias, hollyhocks, poppies, and Johnny Jump Ups–to fill the blank spaces in my perennial garden with splashes of color. The Johnny Jump Ups are in memory of my father’s mother, who always had them in her yard. I still remember her stooping down to point them out, telling me what those tiny little purple and yellow flowers were called.

Every year all those who know me learn how much I enjoy my garden. My husband digs holes and lugs big bags of compost around for me. My children patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) listen as I tell them the latest thing I’ve planted, how my rose bush is doing, and what’s blooming today. My rose bush is a continual source of amusement to my family as it causes me the most delight and angst every year.

I have had many gardens over the years. Presently I grow mostly flowers and herbs. In the past, I’ve had a large vegetable garden and potted plants on a fire escape, raised beds with herbs, and a tiny patch with a lavender bush and some annuals. Each garden has taught me lessons about patience, failure, hard work, and delight.

I consider myself blessed to have a lot of room at my house for growing things. I had never attempted a perennial border before, and the learning process has been steep and long. I’ve had spectacular successes and enormous failures. Even after carefully choosing plants and shrubs according to the amount of sunlight and type of soil, I didn’t always account for the variables to found within even a hundred feet of garden beds.

The joy of growing things, of watching seeds and tiny plants shoot up and flourish, of smelling the sweetness of flowers and herbs, and of feeding birds, butterflies, and bees more than makes up for the dead plants and difficulties involved.

Do you have a potted plant, an herb bed, a vegetable garden, or any other growing things at your home? If you do, please share with us what you grow. If you don’t, is a garden something you’ve dreamed of planting? I’d love to hear about your dreams and your plants.