Bearing fruit

Growing up, my dad had a book called Square-Foot Gardening.  It was not on my reading list as a teen, but as Amy and I had, when the grocery bill rose, it was one of those sources I turned to in order to help provide for the family.  The whole concept, if you are not familiar with it, is to build a boxed garden (or you can build a raised box) measuring 4’x8′.  This size eliminates walking on the soil and compacting it as you can reach all areas of the soil in the box from one of the edges.  Then in each square foot block you plant various seeds (directly or sprouted) to grow.  For example, you plant one radish seed 1 inch apart through a square.  Other plants may require an entire square (tomatoes) for a single plant.  Because the sides are raised, many of the weed seeds that blow along the ground never find it into your garden box.  This part is the easy and fun part.  The prep work is a little harder.

I purchased materials to build four boxes (10″ x 8′ planks) and made the 4’x 8′ frames.  I had been watching our backyard to determine where best to place the boxes for the best amount of sunlight for each box.  I laid the boxes in place, took spray paint and marked the outside of the boxes in the grass.  Then I handed a shovel to each of my sons (and one for myself) and we commenced removing the grass from the area so we could slide the boxes in place.  The book gave a formula for the amount of good soil, compost and vermiculite to fill the boxes.  And these three ingredients had to be mixed thoroughly – whew!  I had already determined the various vegetables I wanted to grow, so I marked the box (one-foot squares on the frames) and made a depth stick (small dowel marked at various 1″ intervals) and out we (the boys and I) went to plant and then water.  

A couple of our boxes were up near the house, while the other two were down at the bottom of the yard (near the tree, fence, weed line).  The ones in the bottom had to be weeded due to their closeness to the outside sources, while the ones near the house remained mostly weed free.  That is, until someone without thinking ahead (me) placed a bird feeder on the pole at one end of the box.  Well, let’s just say that birds will eat just about any seed and they aren’t too tidy at times.  Their mess found its way into the box and weed seeds grew quickly.  Needless to say, the bird feeder had to be moved to another location! It was exciting for me to watch day after day for the seeds to sprout and then grow their harvest for our table.  Once a square was harvested, another round of seeds could be planted and off we went again until the fall arrived and the season of growing was done.

What does all this have to do with the Fruit of the Spirit?  There is preparation work of removal of old ways of thinking (Romans 12:2) and it can be hard and even painful, which by the time we removed all that grass and mixed/turned all the soil components, no one wanted to see a shovel for a while.  But there is great excitement and joy as the “fruits” begin to show themselves.  It honestly would have been easier at points to continue to purchase the produce at the store.  But that would have been costly. The same can be said for relying on the works of the flesh instead of the Spirit and the fruit He produces in your life.  And there can be times when we, without thinking, add a “bird feeder” to our life and have unintended and unwanted consequences.

Lastly, one year my brother and I split a truckload of dirt from the local riverbank.  I had been fertilizing my beds (a lot of effort).  My half of the load filled one bed after leveling some ground in front of the house.  I planted tomatoes (Roma) in each box.  The one I fertilized had normal growth, about 3′ tall.  The tomatoes in the riverbank soil grew taller than me.  We had so many tomatoes! We were blessed with a bounty of tomatoes and able to bless others. 

I am not sure where you are in the process of the Spirit producing fruit in your life, but the joy is that He desires to do so if we will surrender.  And it is a never-ending process of you bearing much fruit and thereby being a blessing to so many others.

Pressing On…

Ron Tipton, Senior Pastor