July 19
Scripture: Ecc 3:1
Source author: Mimi Greenwood Knight
July 19
God the Gardener For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. —Ecclesiastes 3:1
My dad was a gardener. But we didn’t plant any seeds in South Louisiana during the year after Hurricane Katrina struck. What was left of our world after the hurricane was so ugly that the thought of gardening—the thought that we had any power to make the world around us pretty again—was inconceivable. But God had a surprise for us. We didn’t sow any seeds. But He did. The experts say the sunflowers that popped up randomly all over South Louisiana were the result of seeds that may have been in the soil for twenty years or more. As the storm unearthed hundreds of trees in our area, the seeds were awakened and bloomed. Then, just like a rainbow after a thunderstorm, they delighted us by popping up in the hundreds—in the thousands—amidst the rubble, reminding us that God had not forgotten us. His mercy is new every morning, and life would be beautiful and bountiful again.
Our lives consist of different seasons. Through them all, God’s love and mercy never changes. — Mimi Greenwood Knight —