Faith column: The peace and love within a gardener's spirit

The garden of my childhood was filled with vegetables and irises.

I learned to take a small cup of sugar with me as my mom harvested rhubarb. The desire to munch on the sour stock was strong after a winter of longing for its sweet goodness.

Dinner time was an adventure as we tentatively sprinkled white vinegar on lettuce leaves before hearing the crackling crisp as we ate this springtime vegetable.

I have a sporadic history as a gardener, long seasons of drought between planting and harvesting the fruits and vegetables planted in hope. In mid-April, my husband and I came to a compromise for a raised garden bed design. He agreed to build four 4- by 4-foot raised boxes, if I agree to plant, water, tend and harvest. This is the beginning of this renewed season of gardening. It has been six weeks of discovery, cautious hope and moments of concern bordering on worries.

I decided to start planting according to the design of a "Square-Foot Garden." This type of gardening calls for planting seeds in a 1- by 1-foot square. Each square holds 1, 3, 9 or 16 seeds based on the type of plant. For example, indeterminates are planted one seedling to a square next to a trellis, while nine onion starts are planted in their square.

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The prophet Isaiah writes, "The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. (Isaiah 58: 11)

Gardening has always fed my curiosity, but this time around I feel the power of God making my bones strong and the parched places of life satisfied with the cool waters of Christ's grace. Gardeners are a connected group of humans, branching out much like a thriving, indeterminate tomato vine as it climbs to produce the red fruits of its labor.

Gardeners are prone to be advisors about "the best ways" and the "worst ways" to plant and tend. There is more than a cautious hope to be found in the tales of an experienced gardener. A gardener gleans a deep wisdom for life from the ups and downs of each passing growing and harvesting season.

The cadence of the psalmist's prayer in Psalm 8, "O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens," accompany me as I train tomato vines to climb a wire mesh trellis.

Yet, the majesty of God is also experienced in the small moments of a flower appearing on a pepper plant and in the unfolding of a pea pod seeking the sunlight.

St. Francis of Assisi knew the majesty of God in all God's creatures great and small. It is no wonder that the prayer attributed to this early Christian begins, "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love. …."

If you find yourself in an unsettled season of your life, seek out a gardener. Ask a few questions and the peace and love within the gardener's spirit will begin to enfold you. Soon, you will be enfolded in the love story of a gardener's tale full of wisdom and hope.

Anne Hokenstad is pastor of American Lutheran Church, Worthington.

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