the reeds

The Magic Garden

Natalie and I have a kids’ book that I must have read a million times by now.  The premise of the story is a couple of kids throwing random seeds into their garden and seeing what emerges.  Keziah, the ever green thumb of the family, always wants to plant a garden after reading that.  We may just have to do that in our new backyard!

The month of May has been very interesting here.  As we have gathered the various communities together to listen deeply to the things God has been doing, we came to some very fun discoveries.  Some of the seeds we planted almost two years ago are showing signs of emergence from the ground!  But what is emerging is so much more beautiful than we had expected it to look like.  Our friends are owning vision and walking with God and their respected community in addressing the caveats of need that surround us on every side.  We cannot see an end to all pain at once, but we can see signs of emergence where the cracks and crevices of our society are meeting Jesus and entering into the Kingdom!

I think there’s an essential place for strategy.  However, I am finding that strategy and vision are actually different (or need to be different) than planning.  In planning, we lay out step by step movements that we believe will get us to our end goal.  Strategy and vision are responses to the Spirit (maybe… or maybe they should be).  They lay out the perimeter for where and how we scatter “magic seeds”.  God does the real planning and growing. 

We have witnessed here first hand the validity of the scripture that some sow, some water, but it is God who makes things grow.  We never anticipated what God is unearthing here, but fully embrace His invitation to tend His magic garden!