a seed...

I couldn't imagine life without a few certain things, one of those being a garden. 

This is how I love to spend my mornings. After Brad leaves for work, I brew myself a cup of coffee, slip on my rubber boots and a sweater and head out to the garden. I tend to my plants, watering, weeding, loving on them. Each day, I observe their growth, appreciating each plant that will be feeding our little family very soon. 

The green of the leaves, the tendrils wrapping around the trellises, the smell of the basil and tomato plants, the way the dirt splashes on the sides of the beds when I water. All of these things are noticed and swallowed deep.  They feed my soul. They fill my God-given need for nature and beauty. 

A seed is planted and cared for, and then it bursts open beneath the ground. It bursts from within the boundaries of its dead, hardened shell, and new life pushes its way up from beneath the dirt and soil. What once was dead is now alive.

So it has been with my life. This is how I have been changed. It is a process. I have died to my own selfish pursuits so that I can grow through Christ. First I must die so that I can grow and florish. Such an upside-down way of thinking. 

But won't I be miserable if I deny myself? Oh, but this is where it really becomes topsy-turvy. My heart is filled anew with lasting joy, with contentment, with a treasure of the knowledge of all of the good things I have received. My eyes are suddenly wide open and capable of seeing things which had not previously been seen.  

And the heart knows that this is best. It is full. It has been filled with the treasure of God, the gift of His Son. And this is best.