Lesson 1: The Story of the Green Beans
This post is the first in a series where I will share lessons from my garden. Today I share how the Lord used green beans to speak to me about my children and how we how just like the tomb provides an eternal perspective, so should our focus always be.
I jumped right in to gardening. No research. No experience. Just an unshakable desire to want to garden. My father had a garden and grew all kinds of vegetables. In a sense, my desire to garden was also a way to honor his legacy. So I set out to start gardening. Soil, seeds, pots, and water. That's all you need right? (insert face palm)
It’s shameful the amount of backtracking I had to do when I first started. When I say I was a basic gardener, please understand no one could have been as remedial. I had to learn what I was actually capable of planting, how to plant it, how to fertilize, nourish and dress it. I was even unsure of how some vegetables grew. Does zucchini grow underground like carrots? (insert face double palm)
One of the first lessons the Lord shared with me involved my green beans. I'd planted what everyone said was supposed to be the easiest of all vegetables to plant. They required little attention and effort, I’d selected the easiest variety to grow, and they were not easily prone to disease. So, imagine my frustration when, after the appropriate length of time, I still saw no green beans. In frustration, I exclaimed to my husband that I was done gardening. I'd done everything right and still no bounty. If I couldn't grow green beans, why bother with anything else? So, I determined that the following weekend I was going to rip up all these green bean plants that had beautiful leaves and even flowers, but no beans. I was going to be like Jesus in Mark 11 and curse these green bean plants for having leaves but nothing else. The very next day, the Holy Spirit said look again. I thought to myself, surely no green beans have sprouted within 24 hours?! But when I got to my containers it was as if the Lord removed the veil from my eyes. My focus and perspective shifted. And there, hidden almost indiscriminately between these beautiful, lush leaves were green beans. I had no idea how green beans grew but the Lord told me they’d been there all along; I just didn't know what to look for and how to see it.
This tremendously encouraged me. I’d been praying specific prayers for my children that I felt we're going unanswered. But the Lord said just like you didn't know what to look for in these green beans, you’re looking at the wrong things as it relates to your children. I, said the Lord, have an eternal perspective. And just as quickly as he'd opened my eyes to see the green beans that were growing all this time, He opened my eyes to see all the ways that He is moving and working in my children. This was the encouragement I needed to (as the old saint’s used to say) run on and see what the end is going to be!
Friends, what do you need to take a second look at? What in your life needs an eternal perspective and not what your natural eyes currently see? I encourage you to look again! But this time, ask the Lord to give you His vision…His perspective… His understanding. Then run on and see what the end will be!
As we prepare for resurrection Sunday tomorrow we can look again and see an empty tomb. Never has anything being empty filled me with such joy and life!
Never has anything being empty filled me with such joy and life!
The Roman soldiers saw an empty tomb and thought this was the end of their careers. We see an empty tomb and we see our redemption! LOOK AGAIN! Not with your natural eyes, but with an eternal perspective. Look again at your circumstances and situations. The tomb is empty because the same Jesus who was crucified is STILL alive and saving, and moving, and redeeming and delivering!
Prayer
God change our perspective. Help us to always keep an eternal perspective. No matter what we see, no matter what we think, no matter what we feel, may what we KNOW be your truth. You know those areas and situations where the natural overrides what you’re actually doing. Change our vision and our perspective to line up with your reality. Don’t let us get lost in what we see. May we always keep an eternal perspective. In Jesus’ name. Amen.