Gardening is a great metaphor for experiencing life. Seeds begin full of potential, emerging into new soil – ideally, a soil that will provide rich nourishment and a warm and hospitable environment.
Plants grow towards the sun, yearning for just the right amount, but careful not to get scorched by too much.
They drink deeply of the water, to ensure adequate hydration for healthy growth while establishing foundational root systems.
Plants benefit from relationship – with pollinators to enhance growth, with companion plants to discourage pests, with gardeners. For the gardeners work hard to ensure the life of the plant: pruning overgrowths that would deplete energy for full growth, weeding to remove choking and unhealthy invaders, establishing healthy boundaries, fertilising to enhance health.
And at the root of it all (pardon the pun) is love.
All things grow with love: love from the creator. For the creator blesses us with potential, provides us with one another, and showers us with abundant love: all that we might grow, into the full presence of who we are and whose we are. We were loved into being, and we are invited to love fully with those we encounter.
So as we consider our own gardens, literal and metaphorical, I invite us to reflect on how we are growing in love.
So as we consider our own gardens, literal and metaphorical, I invite us to reflect on how we are growing in love.
How is the spiritual soil warming around us? What nourishment are we receiving, and what do we need more of?
How firmly are we leaning towards the sun (and the Son?)
What areas of our life are thirsty for the Water of Life, and what areas are sated? Are we experiencing anything where we are over-saturated such that other healthy components are drowned? How firmly are we rooted and grounded in love?
Who is tending to our care – helping us to discern what in our life needs to be pruned or weeded, helping us in keeping our environment well-ordered and healthy?
How are we growing into love?
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