Things I Didn’t Plant

I had some peculiar things happen in my garden this year. Sure, we had the normal challenges of unpredictable weather, hungry bugs, and weeds that seem to spring up overnight. But, there were some new mysteries happening this year.

I love sunflowers. I had gotten a pack of seeds several years ago and planted them in my garden. Ever since then, I never had to replant because the sunflowers would reseed themselves and come up faithfully the next spring. But, last year, as the sunflower seedlings came up, we accidentally buzzed them all off with the weedwhacker or pulled them out accidentally thinking they were weeds (Oops!). So, last year we didn’t have sunflowers, so I figured I would have to start fresh with a new pack of seeds. That was until this spring, when familiar seedlings popped up out of the warm spring soil. I didn’t plant these! I didn’t even know the seeds could survive for two years in the dirt.

I also discovered dill is very good at reseeding itself. Apparently, when you plant dill once you’ll likely never have to plant it again for I had an abundance of little dill seedlings pop up this year from the plants that I had let go to seed last year. I also had rouge pepper plants that magically appeared in the garden from the plants I planted last season. Plants just seemed to keep appearing unexpectedly, more than I could ever remember it happening before.

It got me thinking about how God plants good and beautiful things in our lives that we didn’t ask for or didn’t plant. Or, He blesses us with things that we planted with seeds of prayer one or two years ago that we didn’t expect to receive or had forgotten we had even asked. How many good things does God give us for our enjoyment that we forget to pause and take notice. We forget to stop and say “Thank you God, I didn’t plant that, but here it is and I am enjoying the beauty and joy this offers”.

It was just a really cool reminder of the mercy of God. He keeps planting things in our lives, even though we may have lost hope. He doesn’t forget those dreams and desires planted deep. We may have thought they would never come up, but sometimes when we least expect it, they suddenly appear. And what a joy to see not just myself cherishing these gifts, but also the bees, butterflies, and the birds enjoying them too.

- Written By Danielle D.