Understanding God’s Heart
This spring, I started gardening with several flowerpots. I planted seeds of lettuce, sesame leaves, Korean chili peppers, and chives. They are growing well except for the Korean chili pepper. (Actually, I might have planted the seeds of the pepper too early.) Anyway, it is a small pleasure to see their growth day by day. There is not much I can do for them. I just water the plants twice a day and fertilize them once every few days. Sometimes, when a squirrel messes up the plant pots, I clean them and support the plants to help them to stand up well again. Then I just watch them grow and wait for the time to bear their fruits. I want them to be healthy and to grow up well and fast, but that is what I cannot fully control. What I can do here is to watch their growth carefully and help them to grow until they bear fruit.
Planting those vegetables, I contemplate how God works for us. Isn’t God the same with us who are gardening? I believe that God has the same heart with us in gardening. As we plant the seeds, take care of them, help them to grow well and wait for them to bear their fruits, God also creates us, takes care of us, helps us, and waits for us to be the person who fully realizes God’s will in the world. So, God is the farmer, and we are God’s plants. Sometimes, the Sunshine is so strong; the wind is rough; there is a drought; there is an epidemic. But the farmer takes care of them. We also have some problems in our life. Our reality is that there are things we can handle, but there are many things we cannot handle. But we have a God that we can rely on. God watches us and waits for us to grow up well. And God helps and supports us when we are in trouble as the farmer does. This is because God loves us. It is the heart of God we can understand through the farmer and the plants. I hope we can all stand strong in the world, knowing that we are in God’s care. Amen.
Pastor Jinha Choi