My poor wife has a serious illness that significantly impacts both our lives and the lives of others around us. It strikes about this time each year and we have yet to find a cure for it.
The first symptoms appear when the sun starts to shine a little brighter, the snow starts to disappear, and the robins return. The real trigger for this illness, however, is when the seed catalogs start arriving in the mail.
When I come home to find Ana pouring over brightly colored catalogs, oohing and ahhing over the newest varieties of cucumbers, tomatoes, and melons, I know the Gardening Bug has struck again!
This year Ana’s illness manifested itself even earlier than normal. In January she convinced me to build her a growing rack, so she could start her seeds indoors. That’s it pictured above. This has only exacerbated her symptoms, because she already has tomato, melons, and many other seed varieties in the soil. She checks their status everyday, eagerly waiting for the first shoots to break through. It’s very sad!
Thankfully for me, Ana’s Gardening Bug, has some very pleasant side effects, such as delicious tomato sandwiches, mouth-watering zucchini casserole, and savory squash. I’ve thought about seeking treatment for her, but my Mama didn’t raise no fool! If Ana were cured I’d probably starve!
2 Corinthians 9:6 says, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” Ana takes this promise very literally and thank God she does! Through the years we’ve seen our garden consistently produce far more than we can possibly use.
That’s one of the other nice side effects of the Gardening Bug. It often causes a secondary infection – the Spirit of Generosity. This virus blesses not only us, but others too. When we’ve canned all we can, stuffed every corner of our freezers, and sold bushels of tomatoes, what do we do with the surplus? We give it away! That’s when the fun really starts!
It’s so neat to see people’s faces when we show up at their door with a box of vegetables! They just beam! Sometimes we invite families to glean the plants at the end of the season and it’s so much fun to watch the children searching for tomatoes or cucumbers amongst the leaves. It makes all the hard work that came before worth it!
Maybe you aren’t afflicted with the Gardening Bug like my poor wife, but I pray God will still infect you with the Spirit of Generosity this year. It’s a very contagious illness, one with some wonderful side effects! I hope you catch it too! I promise it will change your life forever and could even change the world!
God bless and, please, pray for my wife!