Right around this time every year my family would start my favorite (sometimes) fall ritual. Out came the huge enamel stock pots (you know, the black and white speckled ones), the canning supplies and all the fruits and vegetables from our garden that had been stored in the basement.
For weeks the house would be filled with the sweet and savory scents of homemade canned vegetables, applesauce, jams and jellies, chili base, spaghetti sauce and sauerkraut (the part that was NOT my favorite - ICK!). The kitchen was full of heat and steam and spices while the basement pantry would fill with rows and rows of shiny glass jars - some purchased, some recycled - that proudly displayed the results of a season of hard work and patience.
Ah, patience.
When I'd pester him about when this plant or that would be ready, my dad would tell me, "It'll be ready when it's ready - in it's own time." I used to sit outside in the branches of one of the apple trees overlooking the garden thinking, "grow, grow, grow!" I'd wander through the garden in late July disappointed that the tomatoes were still green. I'd pick an apple and take a bite then throw it across the yard in disgust because it was awful and bitter.
Too often I approach life the same way - "when will it be ready God?" and "hurry up and grow!" and "I want it now!" And time and time again, when I take things into my own hands and rush what God has planned for me, it turns out awful and bitter.
Things come in their own time.
Ecclesiastes 3 tells us everything is made beautiful in it's time. Lamentations 3 tells us it is good to wait patiently for the Lord. 2 Peter tells us that God's time is not our own.
With all of the chaos and uncertainty and frustrations and disappointments that have filled my life lately, I've spent a lot of time asking God when He's going to hurry up and do whatever it is He's doing so I can get on with my life.
But what if my life is the waiting?
"The journey's the thing.*" We've all heard something along those lines (much to my annoyance, it keeps coming up!) - almost cliche isn't it? Well. Perhaps it's cliche because it's also the truth.
Something beautiful and precious came from all those long hours, and long months, of planting, watering, waiting, harvesting and canning: Food that had no store-bought rival and lasted long past the time the vines and bushes withered. A tradition that built our family. Memories. Life lessons. Truth.
Something beautiful and precious will come from all of life's long hours, long months and long years... it's the pressing on without knowing that makes the end result a blessing. I'm hoping I learn that lesson sooner, rather than later... but maybe that's another something I just have to wait for.
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.. Romans 8:24,25&28
For weeks the house would be filled with the sweet and savory scents of homemade canned vegetables, applesauce, jams and jellies, chili base, spaghetti sauce and sauerkraut (the part that was NOT my favorite - ICK!). The kitchen was full of heat and steam and spices while the basement pantry would fill with rows and rows of shiny glass jars - some purchased, some recycled - that proudly displayed the results of a season of hard work and patience.
Ah, patience.
When I'd pester him about when this plant or that would be ready, my dad would tell me, "It'll be ready when it's ready - in it's own time." I used to sit outside in the branches of one of the apple trees overlooking the garden thinking, "grow, grow, grow!" I'd wander through the garden in late July disappointed that the tomatoes were still green. I'd pick an apple and take a bite then throw it across the yard in disgust because it was awful and bitter.
Too often I approach life the same way - "when will it be ready God?" and "hurry up and grow!" and "I want it now!" And time and time again, when I take things into my own hands and rush what God has planned for me, it turns out awful and bitter.
Things come in their own time.
Ecclesiastes 3 tells us everything is made beautiful in it's time. Lamentations 3 tells us it is good to wait patiently for the Lord. 2 Peter tells us that God's time is not our own.
With all of the chaos and uncertainty and frustrations and disappointments that have filled my life lately, I've spent a lot of time asking God when He's going to hurry up and do whatever it is He's doing so I can get on with my life.
But what if my life is the waiting?
"The journey's the thing.*" We've all heard something along those lines (much to my annoyance, it keeps coming up!) - almost cliche isn't it? Well. Perhaps it's cliche because it's also the truth.
Something beautiful and precious came from all those long hours, and long months, of planting, watering, waiting, harvesting and canning: Food that had no store-bought rival and lasted long past the time the vines and bushes withered. A tradition that built our family. Memories. Life lessons. Truth.
Something beautiful and precious will come from all of life's long hours, long months and long years... it's the pressing on without knowing that makes the end result a blessing. I'm hoping I learn that lesson sooner, rather than later... but maybe that's another something I just have to wait for.
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.. Romans 8:24,25&28
*Homer, The Odyssey
1 comment:
~Bethany~ i just ran acrossed your sight & i love your honesty...that's not easy to do...it requires humbling yourself & getting real with God...i'm working on that myself. I love what you say "it's the pressing on without knowing that makes the end result a blessing"...keep sharing!
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