Praying and Working

Saturday Stories Day…

Mom planted a peach tree in her backyard after Dad died. Kind of a memorial tree. It started me thinking about planting a couple myself. Lowes had some this spring, and I almost bought a couple, but it was bad timing. I wouldn’t have time to plant them and take care of them like a transplanted tree needs. I put it off and went back a few weeks later. They still had a couple, but they looked like they were already in the throes of death. I passed.

It was one of those, “I’ll do it next spring,” decisions. A few days later I had to pick up some fencing material for a small repair job for a customer. The fencing stuff is out by the gardening stuff. I walked by the trees. They had gotten some new peach trees in. Okay, I won’t put it off until next year after all…if they still have them this evening when I get done working because I can’t buy them now and haul them around all day.

After my work was finished for the day, I kept the promise I made to myself and went back to Lowe’s to see if the peach trees were still there. They were. Two of them. Two different varieties too. I loaded them up and took them home, spent the evening prepping a place to make them at home, put their root balls in the ground, filled the area around them with good soil, watered them, and covered the ground around them with some mulch. Then I prayed.

You may or may not find it odd that I pray for peach trees. I also pray for tomatoes and blackberries. Occasionally, the herbs get some mention as well. There is a synergistic relationship between our work and God’s work to create a productive life that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. God put the Garden Spot on earth for Adam, but Adam had to tend it. He had to take care of it. He had to work.

Now, that work became significantly harder after the fall. First of all, because he was now East of Eden, and then also because he had to fight the thorns and thistles that were introduced into the soil post-fall. But in both cases, pre and post-fall, Adam had work to do. Then, as now, the success of our work isn’t fully under our control. We are dependent on factors that are not in our hands. They are in God’s hands.

For the farmer (or backyard gardener), the weather is key. A late freeze or a hot dry summer, an insect invasion, or a hailstorm can wreck weeks of labor in a few moments. These aren’t things we can prevent, even if we can take measures to mitigate their potential damage. And so, we pray. Or at least I do.

Prayer and planting, these two activities, are not mutually exclusive. We can’t expect a harvest if we don’t plow the ground and plant the seed. But the most diligent of our labor can all be for naught without the blessings of God.

Now, may the God of all grace bless the work of your hands this day. Whatever your hands find to do, whether you are plowing or painting, may your labor be attended to by God’s good gifts to make all of your work fruitful in Jesus Christ.