When I planted vegetable, flower, and herb seeds indoors on April 11 and then wrote about it in Sowing, I mentioned that it had snowed the day before, but that I hoped to have weather suitable for setting the seedlings outside soon. On the morning of May 9, we had a little snow on the ground, and our weather remained very cool until this week. For a few days now, we’ve been moving the eight boxes outside for some sunshine and fresh air, then bringing them back in for the overnight hours.
What else could I do when the tomato plants were longing to get outside, stretching toward the window, craving sunlight?
Before the sprouts were recognizable as tomato plants, I marveled at how the spindly delicate things could ever hope to grow large and strong enough to produce juicy red fruit.
Because I planted more than one seed in each cup, the time came to thin my plants. Despite these sprouts only being an inch high, these did have some nice roots beginning to go down deep and take hold in the potting soil.
Like a proud, protective mom, I took pictures of my little ones during their first time outside and kept a close eye on them and our changing spring weather.
When gusty winds kicked up, I swept in to rescue my babies from getting hurt, abruptly ending their time outside, later considering that exposing them to changing temperatures and allowing them to be knocked about a bit by the wind would likely make them stronger, not kill them. But how much is too much? Their root systems are still developing and the stems are still so fragile.
And how much is too much for us? When life blows hard on us, threatening to knock us over or uproot what we thought was secure, will we snap or grow stronger? Surely it is possible to overprotect children. As a parent, I may have been prone to do that at times, wanting them to grow stronger, but not to get hurt, wanting to be a flawless parent, unable to achieve perfection.
But our Father God is perfect. He does allow the wind to blow, sometimes cold and sometimes hot, so strong at times that we struggle to stay upright. But He is not capricious. The difficult days have purpose – to make us stronger, to challenge us to go deeper in our relationship with Him, to rely less on our own abilities and more on Him, to trust Him to bring growth and fruitfulness in our lives.
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8