Jen's Garden.

I'm posting this essay by Jen without her knowledge, since she's away at Bible study so I can't just give her a call now, and I'm all about immediate gratification. However, since this was published in a newsletter sent to every woman in our church, I'm going to assume it's okay to publish here. Plus, I'm just really proud of her. It's such a great work from her heart. Okay, enough of me.

It All Began in a Garden

“It all began in a garden” hangs in wrought iron above my garden shed. Humanity’s connection with creation goes back to the Garden of Eden. My first connection with gardening was as a young girl, planting our 100-foot Iowa garden with my dad. I remember being fascinated with how much my dad knew about planting seeds, and being even more fascinated when something that I planted sprouted and gave fruit. That fascination is with me to this day.

My garden has been an agricultural experience, as well as a school for my heart and soul. As women, we have innate desires to nurture life. A wonderful friend of mine pointed out that my obsession with gardening is actually an obsession with bringing forth life. Another friend reminds me often that my garden is “holy ground.” My garden has taught me through the beauty as well as the weeds.

Blooms mesmerize me. At least, blooms that I have seen emerge from a seed I planted myself. I am always delighted when the first bloom appears on a plant. Where does this crown of beauty come from? Such a bloom demands lingering. A bloom evokes in our hearts eternity, a longing for the beauty of a perfect creation.

Planting seeds is risky business. A seed is a possibility. I am reminded that the connection between the uneventful, inconspicuous seed and the glory of a flower in bloom is dirt. I have seen this mirrored in my heart over the past year. I have watched the seeds of love be thrust into dirty, messy situations. My husband’s and my journey through infertility and two miscarriages has been especially difficult for me. But finally the first blooms are emerging. Talk about a heart dancing! This kind of heart bloom is nothing short of a miracle. It demands lingering. Praise God for making something beautiful despite the dirt and weeds my heart has known.

Weeds are best taken care of when they first sprout. Once they get big, the roots are hard to remove, they sprout weed seeds, and they mask the beauty of the surrounding plants. Anger, bitterness, and jealousy once were sprouts in my heart. I left them untended for some time, and perhaps even nurtured them. They took over so much of my heart, that I was unable to see the other beautiful things growing inside of me. The weeds defined the “yard” of my heart. It has taken a lot of digging to try to get to the roots. And it has taken a lot of work to attempt to remove all the other weeds that sprouted in the meantime. What do you see in the garden of your heart? Weeds or blooms? Thorns or beautiful flowers? Roots of sin or seeds of praise?

When our hearts become overtaken and the beauty is hard to find, we can still know hope. God promises to deliver us from our sin. God is in the business of planting seeds with blooms beyond our wildest imagination. Isaiah 61:11 is a wonderful reminder of Jesus’ mission to set us free from our bondage (weeds) and find healing (a heart free to love). “For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”



P.S. from Jeff: Below is a song that Jen composed in college. We found out a couple years ago that the Dordt music department had pulled it out and the women's chorus had performed it for their Spring Recital, and they were kind enough to send us a recording from the concert.

Dordt Woman's Chorus, May 2, 2003: The Lord is the Everlasting God