His Harvest Not Mine

Last spring, I was so anxious to plant a garden.  Yes, I know I live on a postage-size lot with towering houses blocking the sun, but I was determined.  We set aside a small rectangle of land and off I went to plant seedlings indoors and some small plants to start in the soil I had prepared.  I dreamed about the bountiful harvest that would grace our table and jars of canned goodness for the winter months.  There are designated seasons for planting and harvest, and I was obeying the rules.

The warmth of spring brought a bounty of foliage.  My plants were thriving and I was enjoying the daily watering, weeding, and admiring of the work of my hands.  I could just taste the tomatoes.  Each plant continued to grow... peppers, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and herbs.  Surely the harvest would be plentiful for my small family of four.

As the budding season came, so did the sun and grasshoppers.  My beautiful foliage became the meals for the grasshoppers.  What the grasshoppers didn't eat up the sun scorched.  The pictures of the early anticipated harvest led to a dead-looking garden.  The little harvest I was able to save wouldn't provide one meal.

So out I went to pull up the dead plants, throwing them and my dreams of a bountiful harvest into the trash.  As I turned to my non-producing tomatoes, I pruned them down and left...  No Harvest This Year!

November 12, 2010

God's timing isn't ours and He had a valuable lesson to teach my husband and me.  As fall came, the tomatoes began to grow.  You could see the flowers of fruit, filling the limbs.  The tomatoes began to grow...but OH, NO, the frost would hit before they could ripen..the timing was off!!  The cold nights started to creep upon the unripened tomatoes.  I just kept laughing, "Why now!  This isn't the right season!  They were supposed to produce like this in the spring and summer!"

Each day I would water and each night my husband or I would cover them with blankets.  God kept speaking to my heart...my small patch of land became my meeting place with Him.  He kept saying, "I determine the season of growth!  I determine the season of Harvest!  I am the one who makes the wise man seem stupid and the stupid man seem brilliant. It is Me who works through whom I want... and when!"

The temperatures were dropping below freezing and the tomatoes weren't  going to make it even with blankets.  I turned to my husband and said, "it is time to bring them in!".  I had been watching the growth.  I knew the limbs were full of fruit...he did not.

I heard an amazed scream from the kitchen during the late hours of night, while I was warmly tucked away in bed.  "Janette, do you know how many tomatoes are on those two plants?" (There were more than 50!) I started to smile in my bed...I knew what God was doing. God was going to teach my husband the same lesson in just a few minutes that He had spoken to me for weeks.  My husband came to grab the camera.  Excitedly, he entered the bedroom, proclaiming the Word of the Lord.

Through total humility, he started to weep through his words,  "Do you know what this means? God is saying He is going to bring a harvest in the winter season of our lives!"
(Neglectful in our zeal over our harvest, my husband and I both took tons of pictures, without the memory stick being in the camera!  God is still in the humbling business.  The tomatoes do, however, taste like summer tomatoes even though they turned brilliant red inside our home)!

So, I encourage you to enjoy whatever season God has in you in at this time.  Know that God will determine the season and harvest in your life and it may not be the season or timing you expected.  I don't know what our harvest is going to look like, but I am getting excited to see what God does in my husband's life and mine. Tonight we are going to enjoy fresh salsa from our red tomatoes.