Worthy Work

Whether metaphorical or literal, we are gardeners.

Seldom do gardens grow perfectly according to plan.

So much depends on weather and such

Therefore all we can do is do what we can

And leave the rest to a higher Hand

Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.

Prov.12:11

  All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. 

Prov.14:23 

This garden-plot of hours is a worthy work indeed

It spills its lot in flowers and the sundry fruit of seed

And though its days may test us with pestilence and disease

And grow in ways contrary to our hopeful fantasies

Still, faithful we will try to till and toil, this not in vain

If humble, we rely on He who orders sun and rain

We are not Master of life’s dust-to-dust of plant and reap

We, servant of its aster trust a Higher Hand to keep

This sun and shadow setting where dusk cools the sweating brow

That seeds a land begetting more than husks let to the plow

Then do not shirk this dirt-cupped quest of hard-fought groan and grin

But work toward the sacred Rest of harvest gathered in

Do not sit dumb while summer strums earth's sod of teeming leas

Lest winter comes and hunger numbs the clod that sits at ease

This garden-plot of hours slips its flowers through our skin

Toward that Great Roll Call of fall and harvest gathered in

So we, willing and able, should with glad humility

Serve He who sets Time’s Table with bread, then eternity

© Janet Martin

 At the far end of my garden the corn is not much taller than the tomatoes, due to late replant due to cold wet May and beginning of June. 

Here's hoping the mega-rain we had last night is followed up by sweet heat then maybe we'll still get a little corn, come September. Of course, on every corner around here a market-stand brims with corn, or will, Lord willing, so we will not go hungry, unlike pioneers who, after a storm like we had last night might fear starvation!

I read the book Little Clearing in the Woods this summer.

First they needed to clear the land, thus getting seed in rather late. Then, after a summer-drought the struggling plants were wiped out by 2 days of heavy rain. Terrified of starvation, Caroline's widow-mother prayed and God provided, not an easy means of food, but a means, all the same!

Reading stories like this stirs humble gratefulness for what we enjoy from the hand of God...
and it stirs a sober awareness of what is expected in return!