I can’t help it…I love wild, disorganized, beautiful gardens and lives. I really do try to be orderly and linear in design when I lay out my garden. I start off with lovely little rows and beds with labels and stakes and all the things. Somehow, in the course of the growing season, the plants develop a mind of their own and go exactly where they want to go. And I let them. If they decide to invade their neighbor’s plot, well, I consider the risk, appreciate the creativity, and then let them do just as they are doing.
This ‘predisposition’ to disorder allows me a great deal of freedom in the gardening department. The garden paths become meandering trails though groups of friends cohabitating on the land. It also allows for the daily surprise, which I love the best!
Discovering a giant cucumber that has hidden under a tractor part or a gourd high up in a neighboring pine tree are just a couple of delights. I am found laughing and enjoying every little treasure that is unearthed on these daily walks through the jungle of greenery. Of course, quite often, I am also crying over a forgotten strawberry buried amidst crazy zinnias and Thai Basil that has invaded the strawberry patch.
All of this…leads me to my observation.
The traveling Luffa Gourd climbing up and inside the greenhouse lit in me such a sudden appreciation for the wonderful myriad of humans in our Father’s Garden. They come in all shapes and sizes and colors. Some grow in organized and orderly rows while others dance and wander all over creation to their heart’s desires. They decorate their homes with tasteful and modern furnishings or they collect furniture and knick-knacks from a bygone era and find such pleasure in their history and their gathering.
This unique and wondrous variety of the people around me and all over the world just thrills my soul. I am honored to appreciate every little winding turn of the hearts I encounter!
Oh! As we meet one another, along the way, let us listen to the Father’s Heart for these, His loved ones.
We have been created in His image. Where is this unrestrained joy and wandering growth in Father God? Is it, perhaps, in His creativity? Is it in His eyes that see so much more, that see bigger and farther than we can even imagine? Or maybe it is the love that reaches us through the chasm of time, wider, deeper, higher, to encompass every single living thing…that love that transcends our finite understanding.
Indeed, He loves the wild things too. He created them, he calls them to Himself and He delights in their company.
“And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.”
-Malachi 4:2 LB