Garden and Grow

Gardening runs in my family. My grandparents had big gardens. My dad also had a garden every year until he passed. My mom has such a green thumb; she loves trying to see what she can grow and is working on having a garden in her yard, as well as helping my grandparents with their garden this year. I also share in the enjoyment of having plants around. I love watching plants grow and produce things that can be eaten. I love my flowers and leafy plants too. There is something really beautiful about watching a plant grow and thrive. After all, everything that grows begins from something small. 

Pineapples are one of the fruits that I eat every day. I love them! I have even wondered about what it would be like to actually grow my own pineapple plant. I wouldn’t say I have been too serious about it, but it has definitely been a thought since I eat so much of it and really enjoy it. I was talking to my sister about how it would be cool to grow and own a pineapple plant. She informed me that her boyfriend said that you can only grow one pineapple a season, and my mom told me that it takes about 18 months — 2 years for the plant to grow. (I also did a little research, and it seems like you can sometimes grow 2 pineapples a year. It can take up to 2 or 3 years to grow the pineapple plant, but it probably depends on different things). Waiting that long to just have one pineapple wasn’t really what I was hoping for, but my sister said something about how cool it would be to have grown your own pineapples! I agreed that it would be pretty neat.

Growing (like gardening) can be a bit of a waiting game, and it doesn’t always go as fast or on the scale that we want it to. But just like if you were to buy some seeds, take them home, plant them, water them, and put them in the best place in the sun or shade, you know that you won’t have a pineapple (or really much of anything) the next day. And so it is with growing. Growing is a process much like seeds needing water, soil, and sun. Sometimes the seeds need weeds to be pulled away, or they need certain things in place to fend off animals from getting to them.

Much like these seeds, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal things in us that are keeping us from growing in Him. We need to ask Him what areas He wants us to grow in. We need to be in a relationship with God and in His Word—not to check off a box, but to really get to know Him and be more like Him. The same goes for prayer. I definitely catch myself being like: “Okay! I read my Bible and I prayed! Got that done!”, instead of slowing down and just being with Him. Prayer and God’s Word are gifts to us to help us draw near to Him and grow in our love. They show us how to be more like Him, and they reveal who He created us to be. We need to be in communication with Him through the Bible and in prayer, and we also need each other:

“For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God...”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭CSB‬

We need our spiritual brothers and sisters coming alongside us, encouraging and praying for our growth, and we need to be that for others as well. We weren’t made to do our Christian walk alone. 

I’ll admit that I feel like I’m in a season of feeling stuck. I feel like more of a weed-filled garden than a beautiful garden, but I think God has been showing me areas where I need to grow, as well as places that need to be uprooted to become more like who He made me to be. Gardening can be hard and definitely patient work, but when it is tended well it can be so rewarding and beautiful to behold.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to reveal where He wants us to grow and how to go about it. Let’s also ask for wisdom, patience, endurance, and for His presence and grace as we lean into God the gardener (John 15:1). Let’s pray for Him to have His way so that we can grow in ways that glorify and honor Him.