It is early morning and it is quiet.
This is an unusual thing in my home since for the past 10+ years the youngest child in the family (whoever that may be at the time) typically likes to wake in the wee morning hours each and every day. Normally, the first minutes of I'm awake are spent tending to the morning care of a baby or toddler, and I try to squeeze in my cup of coffee and quiet time when he/she is pleasantly occupied with a fist or a toy.
I've had my first hour to myself today. Daniel slipped out of the home at his normal Thursday morning time of 5:30. I woke shortly thereafter at the time I would normally hear a little voice in the other room clamoring for my attention.
A quick glance in the barely-opened bedroom door told me my little man is still sound asleep. He must be tuckered out from a later-than-usual bedtime last night due to Jackson's baseball game in Waddington.
After enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee and some peaceful moments in the Word, I'm at the desk in the sitting room.
Just outside my window is the baby apple tree we planted two springs ago. It has yet to bud or bloom, but it is growing, bit by bit, year by year. It needs to be pruned, but I need to do some research before I feel confident doing so. In years past, I would have had my grandma stroll out to take a look at it with me and tell me what to do; these days, she is getting out and about less often.
To the left of the apple tree is our vegetable garden. It isn't a big one. After getting our hands wet in the vegetable gardening department several years ago with a very small plot, we two years ago slightly expanded and settled on a 20'x14' bed. It's just enough to supplement the share of vegetables we get each week through a local CSA (community shared agriculture). For the second season in a row, we planted mostly tomatoes with the intent of harvesting and canning them at the end of the summer, along with a handful of veggies that we just can't get enough of: broccoli, cabbage, bell peppers, yellow summer squash, zucchini summer squash, and green beans, and of course some basil and parsley that I just have to have. Around the border are wild raspberry bushes that just keep reproducing and that we keep getting to spread out and enjoy the fruits of.
This has been a rainy few weeks. Last week was downright chilly and gray. I might have been annoyed, except that I was too sick with a virus and hurt back to care-- and yesterday as I caught up the weeding in the vegetable garden on the one side of our house and the flower garden on the other, I couldn't mind too much. They are looking beautiful after all this rain. I couldn't help but remember last summer and how I eventually abandoned watering my flower garden in favor of watering the vegetable garden because I simply couldn't keep up. Yesterday I was amazed at how the plants (and weeds!) were flourishing!
Yes, too much rain can be a problem. But rain is a blessing. It waters the earth and makes it bring forth its fruit.
As I continued to weed and hoe and make room here and there in my gardens, I was reminded of Isaiah 55:
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
What a promise. His Word will not return void, but shall accomplish what He pleases. That is a promise I can cling to.
