Verses for Meditation in the Garden

Last week I got to share about gardening with some women from my church. Along with as much practical advice as I, in my second season as a gardener, could muster, I also complied a list of verses for meditation in the garden to share. I find the garden an ideal spot for meditation. Even if I don't go there intentionally to open my heart to be searched, there is always something so innately familiar to the process--whispers of ancient truth well up to the surface. Here is one that I really loved from Hosea.

Sow for yourselves righteousness;

reap steadfast love;

break up your fallow ground,

for it is the time to seek the Lord,

that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Hosea 10:12

The call to break up the fallow ground of our hearts and seek the Lord, and the truth that though we are called to sow righteousness, the Lord, the One who rains down righteousness, is the only one who can put it in us and make love bear fruit. I think about how the ground, freshly tilled and sown, thirsts for rain. How crucial that rain is to the growth of the crops. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness . . . that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

We're off to the North Carolina for Spring Break!