Some gardens are hidden secrets, tucked away behind an old stone wall or kept out of sight where no one can see them. But my garden isn't like that. It's all I can see as I look out my picture window into the backyard.
I admit, it's not much to look at right now. The beds are empty except for a few hardy perennials. I can still see the dried branches of a tree peony or the stalks of a once flowering hibiscus. Only the chocolate mint and thyme can still be seen in a raised bed, overflowing its banks. Everything else is mulched with leaves and waiting for spring.
But when I look out there, I don't see my garden as it is. I see it as it can be and as it will be soon. My hope looks beyond the bare beds and paths and I end up dreaming about my potager, my kitchen garden of flowers, fruits and vegetables.
Helen Hayes once wrote, "All through the long winter, I dream of my garden." I'm with you, Helen! I dream as I flip through seed catalogs. I dream as I draw maps of what my garden will look like. I dream as I watch gardening programs online or as I dig through yet another gardening book that I just had to have.
They are more than just imagining what could be. Dreaming is planning and doing something with those dreams. It's also growing in knowledge so the plans will give me a rich harvest in fall and winter. I really believe that dreaming is an essential part of the gardening cycle. And so is waiting in hope.
Every year I have mishaps in the garden. Last year, the squash bugs devastated my buttercup squash and my pumpkins. The year before we suffered through tomato blight. But here I am--dreaming again of a new garden. I haven't forgotten the mistakes or the blights of the past. I think they're making me a better gardener. And they certainly don't stop me from trying again. Next year will always be a better year!
Do you ever think that way? You're not alone. Even in the Bible, I can see this same hope in the words of the apostle Paul, "Whoever plows should plow in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share in the crop" (1 Corinthians 9:10, NRS).
A farmer or a gardener aren't very different. We look at our fields and gardens with the same expectation: we believe we will see new growth. We believe a fresh start will bring in a rich harvest. We look beyond the sleeping beds, covered with snow and ice, and see something new and alive.
So every year as I dream about my garden, it teaches me something about faith. Faith looks forward. It builds on the past, what God has been doing in my life. But it also urges me forward, to believe in His promises of something better. Even the impossible. For faith isn't merely believing that God CAN do something, but that He WILL! I can be sure, that just as spring will come to my garden, God will create new life in my heart. God will bless me abundantly above all I could ever dream!
HE is "able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think or think, according to the power that works in us" (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV). So leaving the winter behind, I press on in faith, I look forward in hope, "to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own!" (Philippians 3:12, NRS)
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