showers of blessing...

{Credit: Starling Hope Photography}

"I will cause the shower to come down in his season; 

there shall be showers of blessing."—Ezekiel 34:26. 

HERE is sovereign mercy—"I will give them the shower in its season." Is it not sovereign, divine mercy?—for who can say, "I will give them showers," except God? There is only one voice which can speak to the clouds, and bid them beget the rain. Who sendeth down the rain upon the earth? Who scattereth the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord? So grace is the gift of God, and is not to be created by man. It is also needed grace. What would the ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing. In vain you labour, until God the plenteous shower bestows, and sends salvation down. 

{Credit: Starling Hope Photography}

Then, it is plenteous grace. "I will send them showers." It does not say, "I will send them drops," but "showers." So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, He usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we want plenteous grace to keep us humble, to make us prayerful, to make us holy; plenteous grace to make us zealous, to preserve us through this life, and at last to land us in heaven. We cannot do without saturating showers of grace. 

{Credit: Starling Hope Photography}

Again, it isseasonable grace. "I will cause the shower to come down in his season." What is thy season this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers.

{Credit: Starling Hope Photography}

 "As thy days so shall thy strength be." And here is a varied blessing. "I will give thee showers of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If He gives converting grace, He will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessing." Look up to-day, O parched plant, and open thy leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering.

-Charles Haddon Spurgeon

{Credit: Starling Hope Photography}

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How wonderful it is to discover the the beautiful parallels between God's earthly creations and His grace. It makes the garden transform in one's spirit from a carnal source of chores and food to a classroom filled with an overabundance of spiritual and practical lessons and blessings. 

Think - when you're working in your garden, you are engaging in the very work that God gave to man before the fall (Genesis 2:15, 3:23). Granted, the scope of taking dominion (Genesis 1:28) was intended to stretch beyond the Garden of Eden (Psalms 115:16) but there is something very special about this undertaking. So many times God refers to gardening/farming in His Word - references wherein the full meaning is best grasped when one understands the dynamics of agriculture. 

{Credit: McCauley}

I think it's pretty amazing that my quiet time with the Lord can legitimately be spent on my knees before a raised bed garden in meditation on God's precepts and prayer. I loved what I read in an article in Challenging Femininity where I first learned of the Dervaes family:

"How has your lifestyle enabled you to grow closer to the Father and living out his Torah?
Living off the land helps us get closer to nature and the Creator. We had to learn the lesson that we aren’t in charge and we don’t always get what we want. By putting ourselves at the mercy of the harvests, the land, and the weather, we have to rely on blessings from God. It takes a family to run a project like this and we have to rely on each other and support one another.

Living this way puts one in touch with God’s plan: He put man in the garden as caretaker of His creation. The guidelines for living are spelled out in the Old Testament, as well as demonstrated in the agrarian festivals that directly connect us with the land and harvest times. Our family keeps the Sabbath, tithes our first fruits and observes the 7 Holy Days.

Our father has said it’s enlightening to point out that a gardener’s position is almost always on his knees."

Mmm.. that one section was the spark that ignited my passion for sustainable living. I encourage you to visit Little Homestead in the City, the blog by the Dervaes family that has done so much to kindle that passion and educated me in the process.

Soli Deo Gloria,