Earlier this summer, I planted just a small garden; three tomato plant and two cucumber plants. They are just now bearing fruit and I am so excited about it!
It has been enlightening. Since coming home from Young Life camp, I have been doing a journal that they provided to my high school friends and it has been really great. The journal spent a few days reflecting on "fruits of the Spirit" and "fruits of self or sin."
It was really interesting to me to see how the fruits of the Spirit work in us. See, I planted the tomatoes and cucumbers eight weeks ago and just now are they bearing fruit. You can see as the plant gets bigger that first it creates flowers to attract bees and bugs and then it gets pollinated and the pollinated flower creates fruit.
The tomatoes you can see getting bigger and you can watch it all happening. The cucumbers have been a complete surprise. I have been watering and watering and then all of the sudden one day, I had a huge cucumber! I couldn't believe it. Now, I have five cucumbers and more are on their way. It has been really fun!
I was journaling about all of this and reflecting on the fruits of the Spirit and I asked God if he would do that in my life as well. Give me hope by seeing fruit get bigger, make me patient by simply water plants without any fruit and then BAM! One day, a giant big 'ole fruit of the Spirit is developed within me without me even noticing!
One of the coolest things that I have read lately in agriculture that has also given me spiritual food for thought is this: The best way to prevent weeds is to have healthy plants. Healthy plants take up all of the nutrients in the soil so that there is not enough for weeds to survive. Again, I hope that this might be true in my life as well as in my garden.
Galatians 5:22-23
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
I love that, "against such things there is no law."
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