Well, the new plants are in and now it is just waiting, watering, and cultivating. I am still learning what it means to be in California again. When I was in Iowa we had a garden for the summer and early fall months, but come October you started getting the garden ready for the winter hibernation. Now that we are in California the growing season is longer and there is fall planting as well as a spring planting.
I was so excited when we moved to our new rental and we could put in a garden. I made some raised beds and planted, Japanese Eggplant, three varieties of peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and a zucchini plant. It was so cool to watch these plants grow and to harvest the produce from them. I was bit sad when the harvesting wound down and I would have to go back to the store or the Farmer’s Market to get some of the items we had been eating from our side yard.
Then Joan mentioned I could plant some items for this fall. I thought that is right, I am in California. I started looking around and found a variety of plants that are supposed to provide produce into the late fall and made even early winter. We now have broccoli, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, and red cabbage growing next to the house.
Being able to grow different things during different seasons is like celebrating different aspects of our faith through the different seasons of the church year. We will celebrate Thanksgiving and Christ the King Sunday this week, after that we will begin the Advent season. The time of advent, just before Christmas, is filled with good memories of music, hot drinks, and gatherings of friends and family. Later we will begin the Lenten season and stop to celebrate the greatest event of the Christian year, Easter. The Sundays of Easter, which are really seven, will take us up to Pentecost. There will be some laid back time as we go through the summer and many churches including ours will begin new things in the fall as we come to a close of the Christian year.
I find the waxing and waning of activity a comfortable ride. Certainly not a ride without its challenges, but it is one that has high energy times and one that allows us to rest and replenish as well.
As you think about what excites you in the coming season of your life, be it fall gardening, Christmas coming, a New Year dawning, know that God is walking with you. Your celebrations can be much richer and your low points can be more comforting if you will receive God’s grace and peace. May you harvest much for your soul in the coming months for God longs to grow you and his world into his coming kingdom.
Hallelujah,
Pastor Randy
