Tending the Garden
We have had a beautiful summer. Usually, in Nova Scotia, most of the summer is around 22-24 C with the occasional day reaching 29-30 C. This summer, most days were around 30-34 C with some days reaching 40 C. While the sun was shining, we were all in the water, playing and being refreshed.
It is now early September and the temperatures are cooling and we are spending more time on the deck and in the yard. As I looked at my plants, I thought of the rhyme that asks, “How does your garden grow?”. Where flowers once bloomed, now there were browning stalks. The plant that was most impactful, though, was my cherry tomato. At the ends of two or three withered limbs were tiny bursts of bright red and green. Despite the harsh conditions and lack of attention, this plant was trying so hard to do what it was created to do.
I was led to ask myself, is that what I do? Do I neglect my spiritual nourishment so that I only produce a glimpse of what I was created to do?
In Luke 13, Jesus tells a story about a man who had a fig tree. The tree wasn’t producing any fruit and so the man wanted to destroy it. The gardener pleaded with him to spare the tree and he would nourish it and care for it. That gardener knew what we often forget. If we want to see fruit in our lives, we need to make an investment; an investment of time and of nourishment.
Galatians 5:22
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
Is the fruit in your life blossoming? Is it shining bright and bringing joy to those who see it? Or is it barely surviving, just sprouting enough that you know what kind of plant you are supposed to be? What are you doing to tend the garden of your spiritual fruit?