Unanswered prayers - Lessons from my garden #1

Gardening chaos

When starting the new garden, my mom gifted me a bunch of dried poppy seeds. I didn't have much expectation or growth that it would come up as I wasn't really prepared to sow it properly yet. Succumbing to overwhelm and anxiety shaped by all that still needed doing for the garden to become the oasis I imagined, I just threw the dry seeds on the ground.

There were more important things to do!

Now, when I'm writing this, it's about 5 months later. The garden is taking shape and already starting to show it's first signs of growth - new leaves on almond tree, tomato plants getting height, some flowers in bloom... But, to my frustration, we have a big issue with weeds in one section of the garden.

What's supposed to be an agapanthus flower bed, is overgrown with weeds that look like iceberg lettuce. So annoying!

On Friday I had someone help me in the garden and he spotted one of the dry poppy seed heads (the ones I'd given up on), then he said: "Oh, I was wondering what this strange little plant was. These aren't weeds! They're poppy flowers! I know these from when I was a kid!"

I had to Google to confirm that he was right. What I thought was weeds were the poppies all along - and soon our wild flower bed (a.k.a. our pollination zone) will be covered in poppies!

A few weeks later, the poppies opened! Photo is from my garden

What gardening revealed to me about trusting God

This experience made me think of the parable Jesus told of the sower. This man sowed seeds -kind of like I did actually - wildly and without caution about where they'll land. Some fell on good soil and sprung up, while others were carried away by birds, entangled with weeds, or even worse, landing on soil too hard to produce growth.

I was writing a devotional for a client this week (a custom kids curriculum), when I actually covered this same parable. In the lesson, I encouraged the hearers to think about their own little lives:

• Are their hearts too hard to hear God's voice and see His goodness? (like the hard soil)

• Do they have scattered loves, allowing other things to distract them? (like the weeds)

• Do their friends make their love for God grow or toss it aside? (like the birds)

Unanswered Prayer explained - in a practical way

My experience with the poppy seeds in my garden reminded me that God is so faithful with the seeds that He sows in our lives. He generously does so - even when we often forget the things we once prayed for. Our unanswered prayers linger in our minds, yet we don't recognize all that He does...

We could prepare the soil, put up irrigation, ensure the right conditions where faith grows but for the biggest part of it - it's up to Him!

Paul wrote about this when he said: "I sowed the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow!"

All the glory, praise and honour belongs to God. Even if we are great at sharing His word and His kingdom light with others, whether or not it grows is not up to us at all.

A prayer of surrender

Father, would You always remind me that it is You who brings the seeds AND the growth. If I am a seed sower it is only because You have sent me, chosen me to co-labour with You. And if I witness any growth it is only because of Your mercy, finding favour and faith. All that I can do is tend to this soil (my heart, my mind, my life) and make it a space where love CAN grow. Make my life holy ground where Your presence dwells and I walk barefoot like Moses at that flaming bush. Lord, this life belongs to You. All is gift. Thank You. Amen.

Closing thoughts

And so, dear reader, I hope you can identify the poppies in your own life. What are the things you might have prayed for and forgotten about, now misdiagnosing them as weeds when they are, in fact, exactly what you wanted or asked for?

Consider the following questions as prompts to apply the Parable of the Sower to your own life today:

1. Do you have a way of tracking your prayers? Do you write them down or type them into the Notes on your phone? If not, how will you ever know when He answers them?

2. Identify one thing in your life that is annoying you right now. This thing frustrates you and is a major inconvenience that feels like it's disrupting growth. Have something? Great, now I want you to prayerfully consider what this situation or person might me teaching you. As a friend reminded me yesterday, God is interested in chafing and pruning us to be more holy. What could this situation be developing in you? A fruit of the spirit perhaps?

3. Furthermore, is there a way (any way at all) that this particular person or situation might be exactly what you asked God for in an earlier season of life?

The bad things that happen to us are generally not from God's hand; but it is all IN His hand. He is right in the middle of it with is. Right there, in plain sight, but are we paying attention to Him? Do we even remember the last thing we said to Him? The last promise or Word He said to us?

May you continue to abide in the Vine,

becoming more and more like Him,

transformed into His likeness and image,

being so closely knitted in with Him that there's no telling where you end and He begins.

May you always live in the mercy of God.

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