How does YOUR Garden grow?

I think I have mentioned on here before that God has placed me in co-leadership over a community garden through our church. Every time I say that I chuckle to myself. Me and Gardening. Those two words exist together as the perfect oxymoron. When our small group started this project, we were encouraged to do a project that was bigger than we were and see what God would do with it. Let me tell you, this garden is way bigger than I am. Funny thing is....God still works through this gardening ninny.

Today we had our opening meeting for our third year of Community Gardening at our church. I am absolutely blown away by the response that we have gotten this year. Can I just say, Yeah God!! It is absolutely amazing. Due to the overwhelming response, we decided to add 6 spots to the garden. When we did that, I felt for sure that there would be spots left over.

Those 6 spots were gone faster than I could blink my eye, just about. The response was so overwhelming that we have about 5 to 6 people on a waiting list. We have encountered issues and procedures that we haven't had to deal with in the past.....like saving names for a waiting list. Or how to assign plots....really it should be first come first choice. Things we never had to think about before....we had to wing it and make a note of it for next year.

Isn't it amazing?

I was amazed this morning, as I looked around the group of people gathered for our meeting, at the wide variety of people that were standing there. We had a young mother with a 7 week old baby...all the way up to a couple of Seniors. We had people from our church, to people who asked me if it would disturb the church service if they came and watered on Sunday morning. Tim even noticed that there was an Obama supporter in the midst, not that that really means much...but definitely a different opinion than my own. All ages, all experience, all different points of view....all gathered for a common cause. Kind of interesting.

When I see that kind of mix of people....I wonder what God has in mind.

One of my pet peeves with our detached society is the general rudeness that I see. Common courtesy seems to be a dieing art. For example, when I back out of a space in a parking lot, I am often amazed how often I need to slam on my brakes as someone dashes on by without noticing me there. The opposite is also true when I watch someone back out.....the other driver often pulls out acting as if they didn't take a second glance backwards. Yet, today, with that interesting blend of people, I was struck by everyone's politeness. As we hadn't really planned out how to allow the "fair" choosing of plots, people were extremely courteous in the process. Why was I so amazed?

For a brief moment today, I thought that I would never be around to see the other gardeners as they worked in their plots. Then, in a flash, I remembered that I am in charge of our school's garden. I will have the opportunity to see how God develops this growing season when I go to care for those plots. I will be curious to see how often I run into the other gardeners. The last couple of years, I rarely ran into them. Maybe this year will be different? I don't know, but I'm kind of curious to see.

Exponential faith. That is how I see that garden this year. Exponential. Our first year had such a low response...that I wondered if our idea was a bunk. Yet, look! See what God has done in such a short amount of time. I am reminded of a phrase that I used in our church newsletter article that I wrote about the garden. I don't know if I will be able to remember it exactly....but it was something along the lines of "Come see what God will do in your life when all you do is plant a little seed."

As I see it, what God plans to do with that seed has yet to be seen. We may never see what that seed will become. But it is kind of fun to watch the process.