The garden has been bursting forth with fresh, leafy lettuce! Salads are a popular meal around our table, but especially when lettuce from our organic garden can be enjoyed.

I don’t have a greenhouse, so where I live, lettuce is ready in the spring long before the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. By the time those are ready, the lettuce is often going to seed in the heat of the summer. By the time the fall lettuce is ready to eat, the tomatoes and cukes are finished.

I wish all of the garden’s delights could be ready at the same time. To solve my challenge, I could spend more time planning the planting schedule, or I could invest in a home greenhouse to have more control over harvest dates. For now, though, it’s enough for me to grow everything organically and to grow everything from organic seeds I started and tended to maturity.

I wonder if God wonders the same about me?

I am sure He beams with pride at His daughter bursting forth with seasons of good deeds and faith-based decisions she’s made after prayerful consideration for her Father’s will and ways. After all, he’s tended to her hopes and her needs as he’s pulled weeds and obstacles out of her path. He’s tenderly shown her how He’s spent time weaving her life together for His good and her good through the tear-filled lessons she’s had to endure.

He’s also lovingly waited on her stubbornness and her selfish bouts of anger and depression to teach her — yet again — that her ways are not His ways. He’s amended the lives of her family and brought about a bountiful harvest despite her hurtful attitude and words that have, at times, wilted their self-esteem.

He knows she’ll come around (he has that ability to see well into her future, you know). He knows He’ll water her life with his Living Water. He knows His Light will shine on her, illuminate her path and be a source of her growth. He knows there will be a day when He’ll be able to tell her she’s been a good and faithful servant.

But…He still has to wait until That Day when all of His pieces, all of His work and all of His pruning will fall together as He planned, allowed and intended. And…while He’s waiting, He knows He won’t be able to enjoy all of His delights in her at the same time — she’s just not capable of that kind of bounty — yet.

Oh, what He must think?  Oh, how patient is He?

The lettuce is ready, and I am thankful to be able to enjoy it. I am also thankful for His patience with me.