On yard work, apples, grapes and agricultural empires

There is something about having my hand in the soil that makes me happy. As a child, I hated weeding in the garden almost as much as I hated picking green beans. It wasn't so much the work as it was not wanting to do work of any kind, and gardening was the kind I had to do. Now, I do it because I like to do it. I'm not post-modern enough to say that it is therapeutic, but gardening does make me feel better.

I've moved four times in six years, and have only had one garden in all that time, and that was a shared garden with the owner of the house I was renting. I probably won't get to have a garden this year either. The house that we bought sits on an acre, but the yard was/is in a mess. I've done a lot of work to it over the last two years, but have a lot more to go. I would like to have the land worked enough to have a garden next year, Lord willing. Today, I started planing instead of destroying, which made me happy.

Thus far, my work has consisted of deconstruction, which is really a lot of fun too. I LOVE cutting down trees. Cleaning up after? Not so much. But breaking, tearing down, cutting off is so much easier. Today marks the first day of replenishing lawn maintenance, when I have come, not to kill or destroy, but to plant.

My vast agricultural empire will consist of one Golden Delicious apple tree and four Concord Grape plants. It will be a few years before I reap any fruit, but these things take time. One thing that you don't get in moving around is the time to plant. My grandpa has trees that he planted almost 60 years ago in his yard, and a whole orchard of trees he has planted, pruned, and kept up for decades. But still, this is vanity. Those trees will eventually die, they will stop yielding fruit and will be fit for nothing but the fire. Yet the gospel seed is eternal and will reap eternal blessings. Having a farm, or a garden, or a place to plant is such a blessing but I wouldn't trade it for what God has called me to do in the ministry.