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Wings of Light

Featured Writer:  Diana Roth

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Tend Your Garden

At the front right corner of my house, there is a flower garden.  As gardens go, it is very small.  But in the spring and summer seasons, I enjoy spending Saturday mornings cultivating my little darlings, and believe my need to garden to be a genetic predisposition dating back to my great-grandfather Adam (Gen. 2:15).  I weed, I fertilize, I aerate, and in return, each flower and bush rewards me with beautiful flowers and shiny green leaves.  With a busy lifestyle (including a full-time job, a house to clean, a husband, two children and a growing church family), a tiny flower garden is all that I can manage to maintain properly right now.  My father's garden is another story.  His entire yard is a work of art, sporting greenery second only to the Biltmore Estate.  Unlike me, my father is retired and has pretty much made a full-time job out of gardening.  In other words, his capacity to tend and care for these tender plants is greater than my own.

I believe the same is true for each Christian's personal area of ministry.  Some of us have a greater capacity to minister to others, having taken on full-time Christian service as a pastor or a missionary or a Christian schoolteacher.  Others of us, however, serve in a lesser capacity as laypersons.  But regardless of our capacity to minister, it is our responsibility to lovingly care for those that God has put within our "garden." Is there an elderly person in your church or neighborhood who would give their right arm for 30 minutes of meaningful conversation?  Is there a family that you know whose breadwinner has been given a pink slip and could benefit from a bag of groceries or a $50 bill?  Is there a stay-at-home mom who could profit from an evening of free babysitting service so that she and her husband could enjoy a quiet, romantic meal together to strengthen their marital bond?  My guess is that we all know people close to us with these types of emotional and physical needs. 

There are many more creative ways in which to faithfully serve our God by serving others, but we have to turn off the TV, computer, and radio, then listen intently for His still, small voice.   To put it in practical terms, we must make time each day to pray alone in a quiet place, and we must specifically ask our heavenly Father to bring to mind someone whom we can serve today.  In my experience, not only does He show us who needs assistance, but He also brings to mind the perfect action or item that will meet the need.  For example, I have an elderly friend who is homebound and I wanted to do something to cheer her up.  The thought entered my mind that I should purchase an upbeat gospel music tape.  Praise the Lord!  The last time I spoke to her, she declared that she's just about worn that tape out, because she plays it all the time!  God used me to meet the need! 

Let's get busy taking care of our "gardens" no matter what their size, and let's "bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." (Gal. 6:2)