Pottering about.... by Ruth Johnson

John 15: “…my Father is the gardener…If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

I was reading fellow writers' posts, and thought how Marion Stroud was one of the few I know from ACW events over twenty years.  I’d just written this month's blog when the email arrived telling of her unexpected death.  Twenty-four hours after smiling happily in a fan's  photograph Cilla Black was dead.  The fragility of life!  Marion and Cilla leave their legacy,  and it brought me to consider mine. 

I sat in my ‘spiritual’ potting shed (see 21st July) and felt the Lord say, “Behold I do a new thing, have you not perceived it?”  My head is lifted up and like the sunflower, feels full of His seeds ready to propagate.  I have pots, equipment, but my only instruction is to rest, wait and enjoy my potting shed experience. A previous glimpse through the shed window revealed a large area surrounded by a tall wall protecting the garden from fierce storms and marauders who might wish to maim, steal or destroy the crops within.  That's a comfort.

My daughter, who didn’t know about my ‘spiritual’ pottering, surprised me this month with a gift of felt tip pens and an adult “Garden Collection” colouring book!  To please her I got started and listened to Bible teaching while colouring in the black and white sketches, and found inspiration in the Lord and seeing the pictures come alive.  Years ago I was impacted by Anne McCaffrey’s novel about singers whose voices could be trained to break crystal from rock.  For their tone to be clear and pure they chose to go through a ‘mile key’ experience which meant they could never return to their world and lives.  In a black and white area they experienced labour pains where their sight changed and everything became vivid in colour.   

I am sensing God wants His people to see beyond black and white.  My grandchildren enjoy the simplest of things and fear nothing when their father is with them. Are we willing to turn from this world and live our lives more fully for Him?  Even writing this my eyes are being opened to see more clearly through my shed window.  My walled garden looks as if this year it has been abandoned.  I asked the Lord, He spoke of His decree that the seventh year the ground should lie fallow. 

How many of us writers feel the ground is fallow?  This isn't the time to abandoned our endeavours, hopes and desires?  I believe God is speaking of the importance to rest in Him , enjoy His Presence and let Him work in our hearts. The time is coming when He will call us to write,  and the crop of our words will multiply in a way that hasn't been seen since Jesus dealt out the loaves and fishes of a lttle boy’s lunch and fed 5,000.