Gardening

(Taken May 3, 2020)

  From the beginning of our marriage, my wife and I have had a garden.  A month after we were married we moved out to Littleon, Colorado where I started school at Denver Seminary.  We loved that whole experience and the community we lived in at the seminary.  While living there, the seminary campus, they developed some raised bed gardens for the community to use.  We signed up for one and my wife took the lead on what to plant and how to garden.  Side note funny story, one year we had some foreign exchange students gardening next to us and they decided to pick all of our green tomatoes and give them to us.  I'm still confused by that whole experience...
  For many years gardening was my wife's hobby.  When we moved to Missouri we put in our own raised bed garden (because all the soil in Missouri is really just glorified clay!).  As another side note, I'm realizing that my brother-in-laws have helped tremendously with the hard work of putting in these raised beds (thanks Ben and Jason!).  And then finally in Iowa we put in our largest raised bed garden.  But this one was for me.
  I've learned a lot over the years about gardening from my wife and brother-in-law, Ben.  Ben is an avid hobby gardener.  He has multiple raised beds, lots of tomatoes, potatoes, onions, all kinds of vegetables.  I'm super jealous of his skills and space to garden.
  Gardening for me has become a hands hobby.  My job is mostly head, heart, and hanging out with people.  I do a lot of thinking, processing, and reading with my job.  I also do a lot emotional work with prayer and dealing with people's issues.  Finally, my job is people.  I do coffee, breakfast, lunch, snacks (basically anything that involves food with people) to just be with people.  To get to know them, know how to pray for them, and challenge/encourage them in Jesus.  I needed a good hands hobby.  I have other hands hobbies like playing instruments and drawing, but gardening for me is deeply satisfying.
  In my garden this year I've planted a lot.  Here's what I've done so far: tomatoes (cherry and large), zucchini, cucumber, pickling cucumber, beets, cabbage, sugar snap peas, basil, cilantro, mint, radishes, lettuce, and flowers (daisy, lupine, and others I've forgotten about).  We'll see what actually comes up!  What are you planting in your garden this year?
  Gardening is messy.  It's playing with dirt and pulling weeds.  It's dealing with good and bad vegetables.  You have to know when to plant and when to pick.  It's hard work: on your hands and knees, pulling weeds, digging, watering daily, protecting against squash bugs (I loathe squash bugs...), and putting sweat into the ground.  There is something satisfying about pulling weeds, about planting seeds, watching them grow, picking the vegetables, and eating the "fruit" of your labor. 
  There's also something spiritual about gardening. I'm not saying that gardening is mystical or New Agey, but the Bible is filled with metaphors about gardening, harvesting, sowing and reaping, vines, soil, etc.  Here's just a few I looked up and wrote down:

The Garden of Eden, plant gardens in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:5), faith as small as a mustard seed, Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ tomb in a garden, after Jesus is raised from the dead he is mistaken for the gardener, tying colt to a vine (Genesis 49:11), God’s image of Israel in Isaiah as a vine, Hosea 10 - vine, Jesus’ analogy in John 15 of abiding in the vine, thorns and thistles are from the curse of sin, forbidden fruit tree in Garden of Eden, Lord gives Jonah a plant over his head, planting/watering and God causing growth (1 Corinthians 3:17-18), Jesus’ parable of the weeds, Noah was a man of the soil and planted a garden, Jesus’ parable of the soils, sowing and reaping in 2 Corinthians 9,  call to break up your fallow ground (Hosea 10:12 & Jeremiah 4:3), Jesus says the harvest is plentiful but workers are few, etc.

Do you have good balance of hobbies in your life with your work?  If your job is mostly hands, do you have good head and heart hobbies?  If your job is very emotionally draining, how do you recharge with people who don't drain you? Do you garden?