The Lord God planted a garden. 1 Peter 3:15

Are you a “plant parent?”  The hobby of growing houseplants is back!  We’re finding fresh joy in nurturing living things, watching them grow and flourish.  Amazingly, the same is true of God.

God himself is a gardener, planting the first garden that was described as “pleasant to the sight and good for food,” (Genesis 2:8-9) Jesus taught through a parable of a vineyard, explaining, “My Father is the gardener,” (John 15:1) and describing us as branches of a grapevine which God cares for.

Did you ever stop to wonder why God sent Jesus as a baby?  Why didn’t God simply plop Jesus on earth as a fully grown man, to immediately get going in sharing God’s message of redemption?  Apparently, God values the process of growth, and that includes meaningful growth in our lives. But growth takes time. God’s plan is for us to live fruitful, abundant lives (John 10:10) but that abundance won’t develop if we aren’t willing to give the Master gardener the right to work in our lives.

Have you been frustrated with yourself over an issue you’d like to grow out of?  Scripture says that God will be faithful to finish the growth He has started in your life (Philippians 1:6) But we can’t be like the child that plants a seed and impatiently digs it up after a few days to see why it’s not growing; we must submit to God’s sometimes slow growth plan.

But here is the promise: as you submit to God, there is fruit forming on the vine.

 

Resource reading: John 15:1-13