My Poor Little Garden

"...The grass withers, and its flower falls away, But the word of the LORD endures forever."
1 Peter 1:24b-25

Yesterday, I went outside to weed and hoe my little plot of marigolds after weeks of neglect. It was a rather sad event. Well, I haven’t been totally negligent, as I have managed to give it water on a daily basis, but that’s about all that’s been done in quite a while. Now this garden is nothing to brag about as far as gardens go. It measures roughly 5 feet by 5 feet and contains 12 plants. And that’s it. I have never been accused of having anything remotely resembling a green thumb, but each year I get this determination to try to have something pretty growing around our house.

My hubby has taken over the hanging flowers and the impatiens across the front, all of which were once my territory also, Okay, I admit it. They are faring better than they ever have in any other year.

That is not the case with that poor meager plot of marigolds in the back yard. And there is one pitiful small plant among the group that has had particular trials. It is hanging on, but barely. Once, about a month ago, I noticed a baby slug attached to it, sapping life from it. Thankfully, somehow I did get up enough nerve to remove the slimy thing and pitch it across the yard. The slug that is, not the marigold. The plant seems to have recovered somewhat from that ordeal. However, it has also had to endure the misfortune of being stepped on by a squirrel, maybe more than once. And then, another time, I was horrified to see one of the hind legs of my dog Frodo resting on that very same spot. I’m not sure how this has affected things, but there was also a time that I saw a few mourning doves walking around in that area. (One of the thanks I get for feeding them.) And then, of course, it hasn’t helped that the caretaker has not been more diligent.

While pulling weeds out from this one single piece of land that I have to care for, I felt a little ashamed of myself. It has been my job to cultivate it, and I have not done well. Then I thought of Selena. I thought about the job that is ahead for her parents, once she arrives. I thought about her need to be cultivated. Oh, I know that she’ll need to be fed and changed and sheltered and all that. But she’ll need much more. She’ll need to be nurtured in even more important ways than those. She’ll need to have God’s Word instilled in her heart so that she can survive all the misuses and misfortunes which will probably come her way.
There will likely come a time when someone will trample on her, or at least try to. At some other time someone may try to latch on and sap life out of her. Some people may even do their own brand of pecking away at her. All I hope is that her daddy and mommy will keep on watering and hoeing and weeding. Then, I pray, she’ll grow strong in the ways that matter most. By and by, it would be wonderful to see her hold up even better than my courageous little marigold plant.