Don't Count Me Out!

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer. 29:11). 

I move alot. Not bragging or complaining . . . only stating a fact. The thing is, not only do I move, but my garden and plants move also. Why, I can't leave my grandmother's peonies and snowball viburnum, my great-grandparents iris, my mother's daylilies, or my daddy's hosta. They have to stay with me. Not only the sentimental plants, but I have other favorites I have to move too. The mystery bush with little pink flowers my grandmother gave me, the perennials that I can't leave behind, the gift plants like my new ever blooming hydrangea. Yes, all must go.

How do I "pack" and move these special belongings? Many of them get planted back into pots but there are others I dig up and drop down into plastic grocery bags. This "bag method" of moving plants works well for my smaller plants, especially perennials. Sometimes my plants get replanted at their new home as soon as they arrive but there have been times when they sit patiently in the containers and bags for months -- waiting.

This last move I once again dug up plants, however they didn't have to wait long to be replanted. I spent an afternoon placing them in their new spots and then a couple of weeks later, as I was checking on them, I realized I had left a couple of the plastic bags in the flower bed. As I lifted the bags, a clump of dirt fell to the ground. In the middle of the clump was a small, anemic daylily. As it was trying to unfurl it's stem and leaves to get through the soil and plastic bag toward light, it was as if it was saying "Don't Count Me Out!" Needless to say I found a special place for this plant that was determined to make it no matter what the circumstances.

Hmmmmm . . . determined to make it no matter what the circumstances. As I looked at this struggling, but determined plant I saw myself -- for I too have been planted only to be dug up time after time and replanted and replanted. At times I have also gone through difficult circumstances where I felt I was left alone in a bag full of dirt, thrown away in a garden and presumably forgotten. Oh, but I too cry out "Don't Count Me Out!" For as small and anemic as I may feel, I continue to get through the circumstances and toward the "Light." I know I have not been forgotten and there is still a place for me to grow, bloom, thrive, and be used of God. For His word tells me, and tells you too, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer. 29:11). 

"Bloom Where You're Planted" . . . 

Well, I say . . . 

"Bloom Even If You Aren't YET Planted!!!"

And never forget -- GOD HAS A PLAN.

Cracked Pots

When I think of potting plants, I immediately think of using terra cotta pots. With all the plastic containers, glazed pottery, and baskets available for plants, I'm still drawn to the brownish-orangy, yellow clay pots.

I especially love aged clay pots -- the ones in which moss has begun to grow over the surface. Such character this lends to the container as well as color and soft texture.

New or old, these are my favorite. The only problem is they have a tendency to break easily. Many a spring I have sorted through containers to find broken clay pots nestled among the new and not so new. I also find them around the house, cracked but with the soil and sometimes even the plant, captured inside.

I recently found a couple of uses for the broken pieces of these earthen vessels:

• use small pieces in the bottom of a larger container to provide drainage 
• place the container on the ground - broken side down - and place a plant in the ground giving the illusion of a plant growing out of the container
• Take larger pieces of the pot and place strategically in the flower bed to add interest

It's so difficult for a gardener to throw anything away!

I would like to think I have aged with grace and have a soft layer of beautiful moss that adds character, but I feel more like a cracked pot. In the pile of old and new, useful and aged pots, I show up as broken pieces of an earthen vessel. But I have found that I'm under the care of a loving Gardener and He too finds it difficult to throw anything away!


Under His care, He takes my brokenness and makes it useful for His Kingdom and His Glory. I may not be the most magnificent pot in the pile, but God still loves me and has a purpose for me. AND . . . He has one for you too.
 

 "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." 

(Psa. 147:3 NKJV).

God's Potting Bench

"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord." (Psa. 139:1-4 NIV).

It's humbling to know that before I wrote the first word on this blog, God knew it completely. He not only knew the word before it came off my tongue (or my thoughts onto a keypad), He is familiar with all my ways -- my going out and my lying down, when I sit and when I rise. He has already searched me and knows me.

Why can't I remember these words written by the Psalmist when I am discouraged, downtrodden, or distressed?

Why can't I remember the many truths found in Scripture?

Why can't I take hold of the promises that are written for me?

Why . . . because I don't take the time to read, re-read, and meditate on them. God's Word is full of truths and promises that are waiting to become a part of my spiritual existence.

So . . . I plan to spend time at God's Potting Bench -- a place where I can allow God's Word to till my heart the same as when I run my hands through potting soil before planting. Where I know I can trust God's Word to be the light, water, and food I need to grow, just like a plant. I want to go deeper in His Word so I can have a strong foundation, like the strong roots of a healthy plant. The results of my time at God's Potting Bench -- encouragement, peace, and deep roots and good fruit.