My father’s annual summer garden and I sprouted simultaneously over the years of my childhood. One of my summer chores was pulling weeds in the rectangular garden that grew along the side of our garage in our northern backyard. My dad and I would often visit my great uncle, to help him with a variety of tasks, on his small farm that produced most of the food he consumed; vegetables and fruit, fresh beef, pork, poultry, eggs, milk and hand churned butter. As an adult I have planted a garden most every place we have lived, even if it was just a few containers on a balcony.
When our boys were young I would frequently ask them to help me in the yard or garden. Like most kids, they would comply and complain. I remember a day when my youngest son was assisting me with some weed pulling and whining endlessly. Determined to teach the boy that hard work is an important part of life, I finally turned to him and asked, “David, where did God put Adam after he was created?”
This child, raised in church and Sunday school since birth, knew the answer. He looked up at me, a pulled weed dangling from his hand and replied, “The Garden of Eden.”
That’s right,” I said. “And what is the first work God gave Adam to do?”
My boy gazed off into the trees behind me his brain processing, thinking, remembering and finally answered, “Take care of the garden and the animals?”
I stood up, towering above him to emphasize my next statement. “So if the first thing God did was put man in a garden and tell him to take care of it, then what we are doing right now is very spiritual work. I don’t think Adam was complaining do you?”
His eyes locked on mine and had that look, the one that lets you know the kid knows more than you do and what you just said proves it. “No Mom, but there weren’t any weeds then, Adam had it easy.”
Ouch! OK, he got me there.
After a long discourse on how weeds came to be and how that was related to whining while helping your mother, I regained my rightful place as the wiser one. He didn’t complain as much after that and as the years flew away, he grew up to enjoy gardening too.
One more confirmation for this Mom and plant lover, that gardening is indeed very spiritual.