Why would I want anyone to read this devotional plan?  It’s not because I want your money when you buy parts of it from the digital downloads part of my website, or because I want you to share it so I get famous or something... It’s because I hope it brings you closer to heaven. Is it really even possible that a hot mess, ADHD, narcissistic, self-indulgently overbearing person like me could desire to love others and want to make a difference in someone else's life just for their own benefit? Yes, I'd like to think so, I hope so, and I hope God recognizes that in me too.

When God made the heavens and the earth it was orderly.  There was a carefully laid out plan, and everything worked together for His glory.  And when it was done, He rested in it, fellowshipped and called it all good.  But when humanity went and messed it all up with disobedience, which caused disorder right down to the very fabric of space and time itself, God started weaving a pattern from beginning to end to bring His perfect garden back into sync.  Jesus spent so much time in gardens, that after His resurrection in the book of John, He was even confused for being the gardener.  The prophets used so many gardening metaphors, and we are so inexplicably dependent on our world through the fruits of the earth and the husbandry of the creatures we are to subdue, that it is almost impossible to read scripture without noticing how the Creator of life itself sustains life, and teaches us about Himself through the natural world as well, throughout these metaphors in scripture.  Scripture is replete with images and metaphors of the created and natural world, and we, being made in the image of God, get to co-create and tend to the beauty of it.

When I first started to spend more time gardening after getting married, I realized in a very short time how much I didn’t actually know.  I also realized that I could spend a lifetime learning and still not know it all. The wonder of scripture and the character of God are the same.  “His ways are higher than our ways.”

I love my Creator, but I don’t worship His creation.  What is worship though?  Good question!  It’s complicated.  It’s essentially what you do, how you do it, why you do it, and who you do it for.  I like to think of it as the way you feed, and spend, the parts of your soul, when no one is paying attention, that takes years and generations to bear fruit.  See, when you look at it this way, it’s so much more than singing songs on a Sunday morning, and it has consequences for not just your kids, but your grandkids, your great-grandkids, and your great-great-great-grandkids.  Like permaculture planting, heirloom seeds, and well maintenance, future generations benefit from investing in memorizing scripture, guided prayer, lifetime membership and church service.  Our legacies can be remembered despite our flaws, and that brings me hope when I lose my cool too many times with my kids when I’m sleep-deprived.  Sure, the dishes are stacked up, the washing machine agitator broke and I’m agitated by the gastro virus we’re dealing with during allergy season… and then I read a well-timed verse from Psalms which calms my troubled hormonal body when I can’t get my hands in the dirt! 

Please take some time to read Psalm 102.  I’m writing this while I’m trying to help my six-year-old and four-year-old nap, and this psalm perfectly captures how weak I feel and the hope I have in God.  I love the pictures it paints with words; “Let my cry for help come to you,” “withered like grass,” and “like a desert owl,” and “let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord.”  Verse 25 states, “In the beginning, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” 

When you make a garden, you lay out a plan, and when God laid out the foundation of the earth He had a plan, and when He made the beginning stages of your DNA & RNA He had a plan for your life.  He wants to know you and delights in who you are, and desires to have you delight in Him and serve Him.  Proverbs 3:7 says, “Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.  Instead fear the Lord and turn your back on evil.  Then you will gain renewed health and vitality.”  Romans 12:2 leads me to reflect, surrender, and meditate on the Word of God, pray and follow the Holy Spirit’s lead when opportunity or anointed appointments follow!  I hope that you will take this moment, just a minute or two to pray in your own words to turn to God’s wisdom and ask Him to meet with you as you read the Bible through this devotional.  I ask God, as I’m writing this, to lead you down paths of righteousness, and truth, and guide you in ways to love and serve in powerful ways as you make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in water and fire in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - a life truly cultivated in Christ.