Volunteers and Gift-Tending
(Warning: Longer than usual post.)
I love volunteers!
Not the kind that make the bake sale a success (though those are lovely and needed as well!), but the kind that appear in my yard and garden without human agency. These are the plants that appear somewhere I didn’t intend for them to be, that I did not plant, but thanks to my garden-keeping “style,” are not discovered until they are flourishing. It would be a shame to let that vigor go to waste, so…I have an extra grapevine, a pretty (but unfruitful) nectarine/shade tree, and now a very fruitful watermelon patch! Just to mention a few.
As I was giving thanks for the five beautiful watermelon fruit I discovered just yesterday. I realized that God had given me an answer to both a question and a prayer through that 10-foot wide patch of swirl-lobed leaves and pale yellow flower cups.
I was reading Paul’s letters to Timothy recently, and much of his counsel to this young disciple was directed at using and growing the abilities given by the Holy Spirit to Timothy for the benefit of the people of God. “Fan into flame.” “Don’t neglect.” These are some of Paul’s encouragements. What do they mean? How can I cause the embers of what the Spirit has chosen for myself or others to burst into flame and benefit God’s family bearing the fruit that brings God glory (See John 15:8,16)?
The same way I cared for the watermelon vine.
Notice it. Something not-grass was growing in the bermuda under the nectarine tree.
Give thanks for it. Thank you, God, for this serendipitous beauty. (Watermelon plants are very pretty.)
Protect it. I put a tomato cage over it so my hubby would not mow over it. (Mowing is his job.)
Water it. Fruiting plants require more water than grass.
Watch it. Every day it seemed to have more leaves, and soon there were flowers.
Give thanks for it. Thank you, God, for the possibility of a melon I can eat without my tongue and lips swelling. (Seems I’m allergic to the cantaloupe types…sad face.)
Tend it. I fed it some fish emulsion and put sheets of cardboard around it so it wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the grass.
Restrain/train it. I carefully brought in the vigorous growth tips to rest on the cardboard to reduce the risk of The Hub mowing over them.
Give it permission to grow. I could have pulled it out. It is in a very inconvenient place.
Bless it. I asked God to bring bees and make it fruitful.
Rejoice over it. I saw one little melon growing…a pale, sad little misshapen runt of a thing, but you should have heard me crow with delight! Hurrah! The bees have found it and there is something happening.
Give thanks for it. I did not see what it was really doing under all those leaves until yesterday. I was thanking Him and looking around it, still asking for fruit, when I spied those great globes of hopefulness! Two different kinds!
One had cracked open and the bugs were beginning to feast, so I plucked it and brought it in. Even in it’s unripe state (It was barely pink.) it was tasty enough to wade through the seeds and enjoy.
What does this have to do with fanning a gift into flame? Let’s review.
All of the abilities the Spirit of God gives His people for their growth are “volunteers” — blessings, capabilities unlooked for. Notice what God is doing through you or others in your life. Be aware of when He moves and through whom. Thank Him for it.
Protect those gifts by verbal affirmation. Don’t allow it to be demeaned in your thinking.
Water it with truth from the Spring of Living Water. Watch it to see what else God might be doing.
Offer gentle correction (Let yourself be corrected) when things might be going awry.
Give the freedom to explore how the gift is to be used, even when it is uncomfortable or inconvenient. Bless it with acceptance, and be blessed by it, thus enjoying its fruit.
I am praying that God will use this to grow good fruit in your life and mine as I am
Following Jesus every day in the everyday,
Christi
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