God’s Good Gifts
I love gardening. I love everything about it, the sun on my back, the rain in my face, the dirt under my nails, the grass under my feet. I even like that pleasant, tired feeling that comes from digging, pruning, planting, moving compost or mowing. Any opportunity I get I’ll be outside in my garden, just ask my family. And if I’m not actually gardening, I’m sitting with a coffee thinking and dreaming about my next gardening project.
My most recent project has been to turn the space between the house and the side fence, which was once the kids cricket pitch, into my vegie patch. This is a bit of an ongoing project as I continue to add more vegie beds and have plans to put up an arch and maybe create a stone path.
Usually, my garden is well planned. I decide what vegies to plant where and when. So, when a couple of months back some plants that I had not planted began sprouting from the compost in one of the gardens beds, I was conflicted. Should I pull them out or just let them grow and see what they were? Curiosity won and I left them to grow. To my utter delight, this unplanned crop turned out to be rockmelon. We’ve had two so far and they taste delicious.
As I watched that plant produce flowers and then fruit, I began referring to it as ‘God’s rockmelon’. I mean, I’d planted everything else growing in my gardens but I hadn’t planted that rockmelon, God had. And so, without thinking much about it I just laughingly called them ‘God’s rockmelon’. One day as I heard the words coming from my mouth, the absolutely absurdity of my thinking hit me.
By attributing the rockmelon to God, I was inadvertently inferring that all the other things that I had planted were mine. I had chosen them, planted them, watered them, made them grow. It was my doing. On some level, it was as if I believed that I had brought them into being. When in reality all I had done was plant small vegie plants that grew into big vegie plants.
I had momentarily lost sight of the complete sovereignty and provision of God. But God went on to graciously remind me that He alone has created all things and sustains all things (Rev 4:11). That everything in heaven and on earth belongs to Him (Deut 10:14, Ps 24:1-2). That the only reason my small vegie plants grow into big vegie plants is because that’s how God has willed it to be. It is entirely due to His intelligent design and providential care that my garden and the earth, grows anything (Acts17:24-25, Gen 1:11-12). It is not of my doing. He is Lord over all.
His Lordship extends to every aspect of our lives. Yet we so quickly forget that. We wrongly think that the reason we earn good money is because we work hard. The reason we are strong and healthy is because we eat well and exercise. The reason our kids are so well adjusted and happy is because we have parented well. The reason we’re so skilled at our job is because we have studied and trained. Oh, how wrong we are!
God has given us everything! Every good gift comes from His hands (James 1:17). A strong body to run and to work hard. An intelligent brain to learn and remember and problem solve. The wisdom and words to speak and build relationships. The very breath that we breathe is from Him (Acts 17:25).
So, as I sit and savour the last few bites of this rockmelon that popped up unexpectedly in my garden, I’m giving thanks to God for all of His good gifts. For life, and breath, and gardens.
“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” Rev 4:11
