How does one grow tulips in the desert? These delicate, translucent ladies with their hearts spread open to the sun. Like several pink brush strokes rising from yellow centers streaked with black stamen, they sing their spring songs.
"With lots of love and care," answered one of the women at work.
Bewildered, I pictured our Arizona clay earth with sandy soil giving way only to jackhammers, not dainty dressed-for-spring tulips. Even with mulch and peat moss and hauled in dark moist soil, the bulb would not have any room to send down shoots, I imagined.
But my friend reassured me that she has grown many tulips in the hardened Arizona earth, with love and care. Her eyes gleamed.
She gently cradled the vase in her hands with a tender touch. One I'm sure she used on her plants.
"You just take a slip from the plant's stem and put it in water," she explained. "And roots start growing naturally."
I wondered if I looked like an inept gardener. Someone with no experience in making beautiful things grow in parched earth and blazing sun. Probably a good assessment.
The Master Gardener, however, has much experience in making beautiful things grow even if the heartland is parched. He pours His tender love drops on the clay, softening it while He works in the rich soil of His word. Because He shades the delicate bloom from the noonday sun, the edges do not burn nor the petals wilt. The flower just has to receive His love and nourishment.
We just need to let the Master plant us where He chooses, even if the soil of life is hard, and spread open our hearts to His tender love and care. Drinking of His water and soaking up the richness of His word will produce a thing of beauty in our lives.
"But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that send out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." Jeremiah 17:7, 8 NIV
Are you being deep-watered by the Master Gardener?
From My Heart to Yours,
Linking with Word-Filled-Wednesdays at the Internet Cafe
Labels: Christian Inspiration, Creation, Flowers, Word-Filled-Wednesday
