Finding God in the Garden

On prayer and planting seeds.

“When we sow a seed, we plant a narrative of future possibility. It is an action of hope. Not all the seeds we sow will germinate, but there is a sense of security that comes from knowing you have seeds in the ground.”

The Well-Gardened Mind, Sue Stuart Smith, p. 65.

I’m no gardening expert, but I’m enjoying learning about all the different tasks needed to maintain a healthy garden.

Planning for beauty and thinking about how to cultivate a particular space.

Pruning growth that has become too much and threatens to overshadow and diminish everything around it.

Thinning out plants that can’t thrive because they’re overcrowded.

Noticing, tending, nurturing.

A friend and I discuss how we both go out in our pyjamas each morning to examine our gardens. What has bloomed over night? What is dying back? Where do the weeds need pulling and which plants need a supporting stake put in?

Gardens are a complex interplay of doing what you can to prepare the ground and nurture the plants, while knowing you’re not really in control of anything that happens. Despite your best efforts, some plants simply fail to thrive. Others flourish endlessly whether your attend to them or not.

So much of what happens in the garden is unseen. We can’t see seeds germinating or putting down roots; and even if we tried to dig them up to look, we’d kill them by premature exposure to the light. Plants must begin their lives in darkness and mystery.

Prayer, it seems, is much like planting seeds. We cannot arrange for the life we want, nor the world we want to live in, simply by speaking the right formulas to God. We bury our prayers in the dark, trusting the mystery of the Spirit to work in the hidden places we can’t see. Sometimes our prayer flourish and grow; sometimes they don’t. Who can say why? But there is a security in knowing we have planted our fears and hopes deep in the heart of the God who loves us.

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In our garden we have a rose named ‘Blessing,’ given to us by friends when we moved house. Over the spring it developed black spots on its leaves and I was worried that this beautiful gift that spoke good things over our future, was dying. So I cut away the diseased leaves, dug in some rose food and watched and waited. A few months later and our rose is thriving. Healthy, green leaves are growing and pink buds are taking it in turns to produce decadent, fragrant blooms each morning. One blessing after another.