The Gardener

I spent alot of time outside toady. From the early morning when the air was cool and the sky overcast until the sun came up and the temperature boiled up to 80-something. Anyway, I was just shredding leaves and hacking vines only paying attention to what was dead and needed to be removed and what was alive and could stay. I also had a radio on the play the St. Louis Cardinals game (2-1 over the Pittsburgh Pirates). Then a neighbor came over; she started talking about how the house used to look and the woman who had planted most of what I have over the past few years dug out. She told me about how she had helped the woman when she became too old to do some of the manual labor. My neighbor then went into detail talking about some of the flowers that have yet to feel the snip of my loppers. Telling me how to care for them and what to expect from each plant over the next few months. She told me a little of what was going on in her garden and some of her plans for future growing. After she left I put away all my tools and bagged the trash. Then in typical Oklahoma fashion clouds rolled in, thunder, lightening, rain and hail fell long enough to cancel baseball practice and then proceeded quickly in the opposite direction that it came from. When I came back from an errand I sat in the van and look at the rain soaked yard, and thought about how her plants are probably happy (as happy a plant can be). Having someone dote on your color, size, and shape; noticing all the minute intricacies seeking out the best traits and paring off those that are flawed or harmful. I have been kicking around some song lyrics I heard one Sunday morning and they came to me as looked at my yard. “Knowing I am your desire.” I have been trying to sort out what it means to me to be desired by God, and how my life (would/should/could) reflects that knowledge. I think my gardener neighbor helped me imagine that today.