He looked a little sad, and I went over to put my hand upon him. He was indeed sad, and I could tell why. I tested with my finger, poking down, and my flesh was met with dry soil. It’s no wonder, in this hot room, no wonder he doesn’t grow too much.

I went to get a watering jug and some water, and as I watered the plants, I enjoyed the moment of doing just that, and I felt God speak to me even in that moment.

What does it mean to tend? What does it mean to tend to your garden?

It means that you go out of your way.

Out of your way to bring life to that plant. It means that you go out of your way to bring the resources to that plant. It means that you go out of your way to do what you can do to encourage its growth.

Tend it, feed it, give it something to drink, something that’ll make it grow, that will encourage it to be healthy. What does it look like to tend the plants of our lives?

What does it look like to tend the areas that we’re responsible for? Homes, children, jobs, families, relationships, gifts. What does it look like to tend those things? That we would be proactive in bringing life-giving resources of our time, patience, our energy. That we would bring water into those areas. How does it really look when we tend those things well? When we look and see that they’re growing and that they are thriving.

Can I put it out there to you that if it doesn’t look like it’s growing maybe it’s because you’re not watering it. Maybe if it doesn’t look good and it looks a little sad and sappy looks a little fallen over, could it just be that you haven’t really been putting your sights on it and putting your energy into watering it.

Maybe that’s something that we could do this week, this day in our lives we could consider the plants of our lives and how they’re thriving or not thriving and how we can tend those areas better.

Thank you father for tending to us, always encouraging us to grow, for giving us what we need to move forward into bigger spaces and bigger places.

You’re a good father. When you see that we have outgrown our pots, you provide the next one, and the next one and the next one and you’re willing to water us, frequently pouring into us, and if we would just accept what you’re bringing down through us, then we can really fully grow and get bigger, be enlarged.

Let’s watch our roots grow, watch our stems grow, our leaves grow, our flowers bloom and before you know it we are half hanging out of the plant container, screaming for the next big one. Thank you. Great tender of your children.

Isaiah 40:11 ESA

¹¹ He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young.