We stared at the dirt and saw the possibilities.
“You can plant anything here you want!” my mother said, motioning to an empty corner of the yard. “This is your garden.”
I knew immediately what I wanted and soon the space was dotted with tiny daisy plants, just beginning to bud.
I remember thinking, “this is going to be a beautiful garden!” but sadly, the beauty never bloomed. Instead of growing, my plants withered and died. And my garden went right back to being that empty corner of the backyard.
In hindsight, my childhood garden probably failed to flourish for a couple simple reasons:
First, the gardener (that would be me) got distracted and didn’t tend her garden like she should have. And second, the ground in our yard was thick with orange clay and simply unsuitable for growing the flowers I loved.
It got me thinking: Aren’t there sometimes corners of our lives that resemble this—my childhood garden?
Perhaps in some area, we had high hopes for the beauty that could blossom… but because things weren’t tended well or because we found ourselves planted in unsuitable circumstances, those areas are now withered and empty.
And so we think, “well, that’s that. It will never flourish.”
But look at the words of Psalm 85:12:
“Yes, the LORD will give that which is good. Our land will yield its increase.” (WEBBE)
As God’s people, we have this hope: Even if we haven’t always tended things well and even if our circumstances are completely unsuitable, every single corner of our lives can produce something beautiful.
This passage gives us two reasons why: our Gardener and our Ground
Our Gardener:
The sons of Korah, who wrote this Psalm, said that “the LORD will give that which is good.”
God is the ultimate Gardener of our life and times. He’s the One who brings good and beauty—because He never stops working in our dirt.
You know, as a child I sowed something beautiful, but then forgot to tend it. And this is how we all garden our lives at times.
We sow something good, but then get distracted.
We water a little, but we wander more.
Thankfully, though, God is a far more faithful Gardener than you or me.
In every moment—from our childhoods to now—He’s been steadily working; sowing and watering the good, and weeding and pruning the bad.
He does it so beautiful things like righteousness, faith and love might grow in our hearts.
He does it so shoots of His goodness might poke through barren places to bring us joy and Him glory.
God’s green thumbprint is on every square inch of His people’s lives—so we can trust: despite our failings, beauty will grow.
Our Ground:
But maybe you’re thinking, “It’s not my failings I’m worried about now; it’s my circumstances. How can beauty grow in a place like this?”
Truth be told, so many people relate to this.
When life is hard, we can start to believe that beauty isn’t possible here; that God would have to transplant us into a different life altogether to bring beauty to our story.
But listen to the 2nd part of verse 12: “Our land will yield its increase.”
Our land—the ground beneath our feet, the place we find ourselves right now—will yield a harvest of beauty.
How? Because God our Gardener is at work in it.
He knows just what to add to make hard clay fertile.
He knows exactly how to transform empty, withered places into flourishing gardens.
So, I pray that when we stare at the dirt we will see the possibilities—the possibilities of what God can do.
Our lives are His garden, after all, and He knows exactly what He wants to do in them.
May we surrender to His tending today.
And may we begin to see the beauty He’s been cultivating all along.
This devotion is based on one of the Scriptures from my reading plan: “Summer Soundtrack” on the Psalms. To receive a copy of the reading plan (and future reading plans), sign up for the email list below. Hope you’ll follow along!
©2024 Paige K. Burhans
Scriptures taken from the World English Bible British Edition. Public Domain.
