It happens every year. We get a few sunny days and I immediately go into a full-blown case of spring fever. I run outside to embrace the new season and am met with the brown, mushy remains of last year’s garden.
I am determined to hurry Spring along, so the next morning I drag my husband into the car and head to my favorite nursery. All I need are some colorful plants to spruce up the yard and I will succeed in forcing spring to come.
We leave early because I am just sure the place will be packed with other gardeners like me. I certainly don’t want all the good plants to be sold before I get there.
I keep telling my husband to drive faster and we finally pull into the parking lot, the EMPTY parking lot. I’m pleasantly shocked. I feel pretty smug that I am the earliest there. But I still tell my husband to “Move it!” as I speedwalk to the front door.
Once inside, I grab a cardboard plant-holding box and head to the growing section. I swing the door open in excitement … and there before me sits a pitiful array of sad-looking pansies.
Where are all the beautiful plants? Where is the variety? Where is SPRING?
I wander the aisles forlornly, carrying my little empty cardboard box while the employees eye me with a look that says, “It’s still winter, lady!” No wonder the parking lot was empty.
Someone takes pity on me and gently leads me to the heated indoor plant area where normal people go to buy plants in WINTER.
But here’s the thing with houseplants: I kill them. I kill them all. I’ve even killed cactus plants which takes great skill. My husband once begged me to stop buying indoor plants because he “couldn’t stand to watch the little things die”. I water them too much. I don’t water them enough. Or I forget they even exist and they eventually dry up and turn to dust. And so, as I try to head into the only part of the store that’s alive with green things, my husband is behind me saying, “Uh-uh, don’t do it, turn around!”
And so, I return my empty box to the stack and leave the store in a funk.
I have to admit that this is a pattern for me. I tend to jump the gun and leap into things before the time is right. We’ve probably all heard the admonishment, “Wait for God’s timing.” It’s such sound advice, but for some of us, it’s easier said than done.
Waiting is boring. Never mind the fact that important learning happens in the waiting time, that faith grows during the quiet times, or that God knows the right time better than we ever could.
When I step back and look at things analytically (admittedly rare) I can see clearly how it not only makes perfect sense to wait, but it is also in my best interest. Rushed things rarely go well. Does that help? For a short while, until I get impatient once again.
I used to read about the Israelites wandering in the desert and get so mad at them for turning away from God. I mean seriously, after all He did to get them out of Egypt and all the miracles He performed for their benefit, the least they could do is stand firm until they reached the Promised Land.
As I got a few years under my belt and went through my own life journeys, I read the passages with new eyes. Would I have been any different? Or would I have been one of the grumblers?
To go back to my garden nursery story: I remained crabby all the way home and then I walked out to get the mail. My mailbox was filled with SEED CATALOGS! Glorious, colorful seed catalogues, full of pictures of the gardens I had pictured in my mind.
I had to smile, more than a bit chagrined. It was like God was saying, “Calm down, Lady, I’ve got you.” I headed inside and dove into the treasure trove of plant choices and information.
What a gift those catalogs were. And they came at THE PERFECT TIME. Imagine that. I wonder how many times God has had to rein me in when I would have rushed headlong into disaster. The number is probably pretty high.
I hope I learn from this. Patience is a virtue after all.
As I go through the bright new seed packets I ordered, I notice that they tell me right on the packet when to plant. Apparently, I’m not the only impatient gardener in the world. And so, I will wait and plant at the right time and watch for the beauty that is yet to come.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;…” Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
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