PLANTING GOOD THINGS

PLANTING GOOD THINGS

It’s Springtime in Las Vegas, and I have all kinds of beautiful flowers blooming. While I was up at mom’s for her memorial, I took a few cuttings from her blue hydrangea, and yesterday I planted them. It got me thinking about how God planted a garden for Adam and Eve. Planting is our inheritance. We can’t help ourselves; we are always going to plant, whether it’s words, goods, or gardens--planting is an integral part of who we are. Even in hard times, we can plant good things. The other day a fellow worker mentioned he couldn’t find bread in the stores he went to. I shopped after work, and I found lots of bread, so I got it and brought it to him the next day. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, and it wasn’t for me, but he was sure happy. We always have something to give.

In 2 Kings 4, we see a great example of giving in the midst of a mess. There was a widowed woman with two sons to take care of, and she was out of money. The people she owed were now coming to make good on her debt by taking her two sons into slavery as compensation. She reached out to Elisha for help. 2 Kings 4:2 has some wonderful insight for us: “And Elisha said unto her, ‘What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what has thou in the house?’”

Right there is the answer to so many of our dilemmas. “What do you have in your house?” The Lord will always put within reach, what we need most. The woman answered Elisha: “Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil” (2 Kings 4:2b). Elisha told the woman to go out and borrow empty vessels from her neighbors. I’m just guessing, but if the neighbors had empty containers lying about, they might have been low on oil to fill them. In those days, oil was a necessity, used for cooking, for light, and many other uses as well. The woman had the oil, filled their bottles, and sold it at a reasonable price, saving herself and her sons from slavery, and helping her neighbors at the same time.

The first thing that the woman gave was her trust. They didn’t have home Bibles back then, but they did have men like Elisha, that knew God well and could provide people with God’s living word at any time and in any circumstance. She planted trust in what Elisha said. She had the oil in her house. Elisha got her to see what she already had, and then he gave her the wisdom on what to do with it.

We can go to the Lord Jesus directly and know He’ll give us the same good help that Elisha gave this woman. What have you got in your house? An understanding heart, a listening ear, a few loaves of bread, a vehicle for transportation, extra money, a job opportunity. Everyone has something to give.

In times of trauma, we all have something we can give, and let’s not forget to be good receivers as well.

Let’s acknowledge what God has given us and plant something good every day.

Love, Carolyn

Love of flowers and all things green and growing

Is with many men and women a passion so strong

That it often seems to be sort of primal instinct,

Coming down through generation after generation,

From the first man who was put into a garden

“To dress it and to keep it.”

                                                            --Helena Rutherford Ely