Gardening

This is what God Almighty says: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.” – Jeremiah 29:5 (NIV) 

My friend claims she’s about to plant her garden. She’s been declaring this since March 1, so it is about time. Her intention, according to her delayed Christmas letter, which arrived March 1, is to “coax“ the garden into what it is “meant“ to be. 

That sounds like a very highfalutin way to plant, hoe, weed, and repeat. 

She reminds me of Jeremiah’s words: Settle. Plant. Eat. Produce. Repeat. 

Both my friend’s language and Jeremiah’s sound so quaint I can’t help but embellish. They are the cat’s pajamas. The bee’s knees. They delight me. They are great verbs: Coax. Plant. Eat. Produce. There is a handshake between the activity of gardening and the passivity of gardening that may be downright spiritual. There is a melody between body and spirit in gardening. (Please don’t haul out that clumsy noun, “spirituality.”)  

One year I had orphans of bitter lettuce appear ex nihilo that didn’t stop till mid-July. Another year I planted three packages of the same seeds and nary a one broke dirt. Maybe that’s what Jeremiah intends by his mandate. We merge the transcendent and material nature of seed and soil. We may even want to coax ourselves into some meaning while gardening, often known as weeding. Or waiting. Or delaying. Or failing. 

Nature writer Edward Hoaglund tells us that God created creation for the bubbles—for the fun and froth, so to speak. I think my friend creates for the coax. I sometimes create for the lettuce. 

Prayer
For the permission to plant, O God, we give you an effervescent thanks. We count on your forgiveness for our dependency on results and our frequent delays. Put us in a bubbly frame of mind, especially in your garden of Eden. Amen.

About the Author
Donna Schaper is an interim Pastor at the United Church of Gainesville, Florida, and author, most recently of Remove the Pews—first from your theology, then from your building.