A Garden Mystery

My family is playing a game of ‘what’s that vegetable in our garden?’ A random vine appeared and started to grow round squash looking things. Our first guess was pumpkins, but over time the fruit has elongated and looks more like spaghetti squash.

We’ll know soon enough the answer to this mystery, but it’s interesting to note that we haven’t planted pumpkins in 3 years and haven’t planted spaghetti squash even longer than that. This vine was grown out of a seed that was dropped in a prior season, lay dormant for some time and was later tilled closer to the surface to sprout under the right conditions. And what I’ve come to notice about “wild” plants like this, is their strength and resilience – they are deeply rooted in the soil and more accustomed to weather fluctuations than their transplant neighbors.

Have you ever had to put something on the back burner? Have you felt God pull you away from something you were so passionate about - maybe even a ministry you were called to? Feelings of confusion, uncertainty, and even heartache pulled at you as you desperately wondered why.

Then just when you have made peace with its absence, you feel a stirring in your heart to come back to it. But this time it’s different – this time you were strengthened in the valley and have come out with renewed purpose and vitality. Kind of like this little squash plant, things were just on hold until the right conditions came along, and now you and the kingdom are all the better for it.

Wherever we find ourselves in this walk, let us have faith in his timing.