God told me to plant a garden.
Not a literal one, although I’m debating starting that kind too. Sunflowers that stretch taller than me — I’d like to have that. It’s not my hands that are stained with dirt, instead it’s my soul, which Jesus kindly whispered to pay attention to.
It was a nice thought, to plant a garden. So I told Him, “Okay.”
The problem with creating a garden is finding understanding that what you will be creating will not be immediate. I don’t know exactly how the whole process works, but I do know gardens take time and tending and watering and waiting. You don’t see much progress for awhile, do you? You just plant your bulbs, dust your hands, offer a little water each day, and wait, hoping that something is forming deep within the ground below you.
I did the same thing with my soul. I got real quiet — just me and Jesus and my innermost parts which were feeling shaky and untrusting. I prayed for faithfulness and patience, two things that are not my forte, and I planted my bulbs. I could picture them rooting inside of me. Red and orange tulips, I liked to think.
One thing I’m realizing: if you’re going to pray for patience and faithfulness, God is most certainly going to provide you opportunities to grow those bulbs.
The past month and a half I have felt like my life has been on hold. Like I’m waiting for something, for anything really, to just click into place and get things moving. In the beginning of my waiting, I didn’t mind. I thought, “I am being such a faithful, patient servant. Jesus is working in me so clearly.” And then my waiting felt like it was stretching out much too long, and much too slowly, and soon I was done with waiting. But I was praying for patience and faithfulness — so why would anything come quickly when what I deeply wanted was to learn how to wait?
One night, when I was significantly tired of waiting for something to happen in my life, I told Jesus how I was feeling. “You say You have good plans for me, Jesus? If this is true, tell me, where are these good and lovely plans and why aren’t they happening yet?”
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” {Jeremiah 29:11, NLT}
Plant a garden, God had told me.
I had focused on this verse in Jeremiah for so long that I had missed what was said a few verses earlier. To summarize quickly, God’s people had been exiled and were stuck in Babylon. They were not in a good place. They were not free. God used Jeremiah the prophet to talk to his people. And he said this,
“Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children . . . You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.” {Jeremiah 29:5-6, 10, NLT}
Build homes and plan to stay? But these people were in captivity. Didn’t God see that they were waiting — and didn’t He want to save them?
After telling His people to build a home and plant a garden and get married, because they would be staying in captivity for awhile, God tells his people the infamous Jeremiah 29:11 verse: that He knows the plans He has for them and that they are good plans. God tells them this after He has declared that they’ll be held in captivity for 70 more years.
It’s hard for me to see what God is doing, especially when I want my needs to be met immediately. But our God is a God who keeps His promises. And I am just a girl who is longing to be faithful.
God told me to plant a garden. I’m not entirely sure how long I’ll be tending to it — maybe three months, or maybe seventy years. But I’m learning that faithfulness can look like planting your bulbs, dusting your hands, offering a little water each day, and waiting, trusting that God is forming something deep within you.
He knows the plans He has for us — and they are good. But sometimes we have to be faithful and plant our garden first.
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Aliza,
So true that, while we are waiting (trying very hard to be patient) on the Lord, He doesn’t want us sitting idly by putting in our time. Even in captivity, and I believe our time here on earth does sometimes represent captivity, He wants us to build our homes, plant our gardens, have our children, do life. For He promises us a “hope” and a “future”. I have lived long enough to see God give me good things after very long periods of waiting…waiting that seemed to go on forever. I also think there is an eternal perspective we forget about…that after waiting and being patient here on earth, there is unfathomable hope and joy that awaits us in spending eternity with Him. Hang in there young and faithful one…God is good and He is faithful to His promises!
Blessings,
Bev xx
You never cease to encourage me, Bev. Thank you so much.
Aliza, your faith and insight at such a young age inspires me…truly!!
Been “planting a garden” for several years, and I’m hoping soon to be able to plant a real garden in real dirt with so many different kinds of colorful flowers that I’m able to do more than take pictures of them because they’ll be my flowers. It’s good to read words by fellow folks anticipating and holding a watering can. Thanks! 🙂
Yes! Me too. I think I’d like to start a real one too 🙂
Aliza, such a beautiful post. I love the visual of planting a soul-garden. God gives us the seeds of work He wants to do in us, and the growing begins. My seeds came from tearing my ACL earlier this year. Life has slowed waaaay down, and that’s been a challenge for this “do-er.” I’ve had to be still more. And He’s speaking to me, doing some healing in me as I wait. Those seeds are hopefully beginning to sprout, but they won’t bear all their fruit for awhile yet. 🙂
Waiting is challenging, especially in a world where we’re encouraged to charge forward. Good for you waiting on the Lord, planting your garden in the waiting place. He blesses these times in life, when we trust Him.
Thank you so much, Jeanne. I think you’re right — healing often comes in the quiet, times of waiting.
Aliza,
I really wanted to thank-you for your inspiring words, they have really helped me today.
May you be blessed always,
Penny
I love this! I too am waiting….and hope it’s not 70 years, but if so…..
I had Him to tell me to sow seeds many years ago. I know that was sowing God’s Word into people’s lives. Where I live gets so hot, my flowers just fizzle. Knock out roses do okay. I love tulips, I may try again.
Oh how I love this! I just wrote about this time I am in, this non-defining time. In between the chapters. Yes, a time of transition and quiet rest and patience. It’s hard for me. I am doing what needs to be done in the meantime. Thank you. This confirms my heart!
Aliza, I thank you and the Lord for this beautiful posting. I am waiting too with you, sister, and it is hard. Yet the Lord is never slow as we perceive it and it been hard to learn that its His time and way as He is the true builder of the kingdom through us. May we wait patiently in gentle humility 🙂
Aliza,
I, too, have felt like my life is on hold for about 9 months now. Hard for me to understand what I’m to learn–maybe patience (ha) in this waiting. I’m trying hard to plant a garden of peace and love toward my aging father. Hard to watch him slowly fade away!! Yet I know that in the end He will be better off! We will all reap our rewards and receive unspeakable hope and joy!!! I can’t wait to see Jesus and the marvelous Heaven He has planned for us!!!
Blessings 🙂