Gardening. Have we talked about that? About the fact that I’m attempting to be a gardener?
Well, possibly one of the biggest reasons I am a struggling gardener is that I’m also a geek. I love science, I can remember all of the science projects my older sibling got to do like growing lima beans and turning them so you could watch the root grow different directions. I actually read the back of seed packets trying to absorb all the information. And then. And THEN. Then I question. I say “by well-drained soil, do they mean my rock-hard-water-runs-off-of-it soil?” “By bury the seed 1/4 inch deep, do they mean with solid dirt on top 1/4 inch deep or just sprinkle it? Or does it really matter? If they say do it at 1/4 inch, maybe I should actually bury it 1 inch deep because I may forget to water it and then the extra 3/4 inch of soil on top will protect it from our zillion-degree sun…” And oh the Facebook posts that guide everyone on everything, everyone has an opinion….but is it an opinion, are they an expert, are they a botanist or did they learn everything by experience or just are reposting something they heard from someone else?
And you know, if you look up online “why are the leaves turning yellow?” you get “too much water/too little water/fungus/too much sun/too little sun/bacteria/mulch more/mulch less….” And the worst part is….I love it. I love taking all this absolutely reasonable assumptive advice (since this person doesn’t have a clue where I live and how consistent I am/am not at watering and mulching)…and then trying to decide what on earth I did right or wrong.
My poor gardens. And anyone depending on them for food.
Well. The last few days of geek-dom my mind has been on my onions. I’ve been fortunate enough to try to garden at various locations, elevations, soil types (yes, still geeking out about each one)….and I’ve seen onions fail and onions thrive. But up to this point I’ve mostly just made observations and hypotheses, haven’t nailed down the “this is how they grow the best here” theorem. (Yes…I read the seed packets…but again they don’t know ME and MY garden). Well…my over-scienced garden has been a little puny this year and my onions just are starting to take off. And I happened upon a discussion about “why do my onions look like this/what’s wrong with them” by gardeners with better-behaving gardens and the most logical answer that came from the group discussion was “you’ve buried them too deep…you need to uncover them so only their roots are in the nourishing ground.”
This was a confirming and convicting answer to my hypothesis/theorem on growing onions….I was so happy to hear this conclusion.
And as I started uncovering my very own onions…exposing the beautiful little bulbs starting to grow under the dirt…I thought of how opposite this is from what we really want to do with life. We’ve been planted, beautiful dirt (not my rock hard dirt) is gently cushioned around us and protecting us from the hot sun, critters which may want to nibble on us, and letting the moisturized soil just coat us, keeping us safe. But….what happens if the stressors around us are kept away?
Well, if you’re an onion…the stuff on the top, the beautiful greens, are nice and lush…while the onion, the actual fruit, is stunted and nearly unusable.
And if you’re a Christian…? If you’re a Christian, and you’re surrounded by a cushy comfortable church, the doubts of the world are kept away from you, walls around you keep the heat of conflict away, the wind of change isn’t allowed to blow on you…can it be that you, too, will be stunted? Nearly unusable?
The bulb of the onion needs to be exposed, with only the roots digging down into the richness of healthy soil. The Christian needs to dig roots in deep to their faith (not a specific faith, but FAITH in the Lord Almighty, the Alpha and Omega) and then allow the comforts to be removed from around them so they can GROW. That requires wind and water and sometimes gardening tools…it requires the storms of life, the heat of opposition, the love of a Gardener who knows that some of our comforts (friends, family, jobs, wealth, health, traditions) need to be scraped away, coming awfully close to damaging us.
And often….there needs to be fertilizer applied…you know, the stuff that was rubbish to others, that may smell horrible… You may look around you and say “God where are you?! I’m now exposed, I can be hurt like this [I’m A Sitting Duck] and now of all the things I’m surrounded by……POOP and rotten vegetables!!!”
But He is the master gardener. He knows what is good for us, what can make us grow. And he faithfully tends to us. And He knows that not all of us are onions…and what fertilizes one plant may not fertilize another plant as well…and He knows that certain dirt and locations in the garden are better for different plants….some plants need shade, others thrive in sun…some need the support of a trellis and companions, others do their best work standing alone….some spread out and others are loners.
And also remember….a garden is good because of the variety grown there. If we are the onions surviving the trials around us with glamor and pride, we should not look to the potato plant with dirt all lumped around it’s base and criticize it having nothing to show for all that is happening underneath until the ground is turned over.
So if you are be facing some extra stressors and feeling exposed…remember the onion…. (Mine are now all uncovered and I’m hoping they try their hardest to be glorious despite my scientific reasonings…). And remember the Master Gardener is tending even you, that He knows exactly what will help you to grow to your fullest potential if you let Him. Dig in deep to your faith, the harvest is promised and will be rich.
