Today, I was able to spend an hour doing a little gardening with my manager and coworker at the restaurant where I work. We started with flower boxes that were dried out and dead from days spent in the swealtering Texas sun with a severe lack of water. We replaced the soil with new rich soil and had brand new flowers lined up and ready to be planted. Not too long later, we had several beautiful flower pots brimming with bright colors and thriving plants. We spent the next little bit watering and adding more soil to ensure that the flowers will continue to have long lives. And, as you know, they must be watered each day to make sure they live and grow producing new flowers with bright petals and vibrant leaves.
Through all of this, I got to thinking about how God cares for us and how we make up his garden of flowers. He finds us trying to look beautiful in a little pot pretending that we are living up to our full potential. Or he finds us looking scraggly and haggard in that same little pot trying to figure out we can fix our lives when our roots can only go so deep. That is when the gardener looks upon us and lovingly chooses to put us in his own garden. He takes us out of our little pot and puts us in the ground full of infinite soil and nutrients ready to care for us until we grow. God puts us in his family ready to love and care for us. He gives us all we need to grow. We are given the Bible and are able to pray for his grace and strength. He surrounds us with all the other flowers in the garden ready to be our companions and to lend us their encouragement. God, as the gardener, loves to care for us. He waters us and prunes us pulling out the weeds and allowing the sun to shine upon our faces.
Sometimes, I forget that God chose to put me in his garden. Sometimes, I forget that I have the heavenly gardener looking out for me ready to be there when I need him. Sometimes, I forget that he loves me and cares for me and that there is nothing that I can do that will get me removed from the garden. I am a flower in the Garden of God.
