"So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." (1 Cor. 3:7 NIV)
It’s gardening season. Two months ago, while there was still snow on the ground, we planted seeds in trays. We kept them indoors, watered them, and watched the seedlings grow. Some seeds germinated early. Others took their time. The seedlings have been ready to go outside for the last few weeks, but we kept them indoors until the risk of frost had passed. Yesterday we finally took all the seedlings and planted them in the ground. We will continue to watch over them, water them, and weed between the rows. However, only God can make things grow.
Preparing the soil, planting, watering, weeding, fertilizing, harvesting, processing, storing food for the winter--gardening is a lot of work. And because we invest so much of our energy and time in this project, we often assume that we make things grow. We take all the credit when things go well and often blame ourselves or our circumstances when things don’t work out according to our expectations.
The outcome is not always up to us. It is good to invest in our marriages, in our children, in our work, in our friendships, in our health, and in our faith. However, no matter how devoted we are, we are not in control. We may cultivate our fields, but we have to entrust God with the growth.
Lord, help us to do our part, and then trust you to make things grow to full maturity according to Your plan.
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