Small Beginnings

When we moved to this new house three years ago, it already had a nice little yard with a modest landscape.

But I wasn’t happy with the variety and placement of many of the plants. The covered porch was pleasant, but only until the late afternoon sun would drive me back inside. The trees made some shade, but not where I could situate lawn furniture. Nor did the yard have near enough color for my taste. Therefore, I rolled up my sleeves and set to work replotting everything.

There are a couple of ways to redo a landscape—all at once or incrementally. The first method requires large plants already in bloom or setting fruit. It provides immediate gratification for the gardener, but it’s harder on the plants. Bigger specimens are already using lots of energy just to keep the fruit and flowers alive. If they’ve been in a pot too long, they’re rootbound and need to have their roots yanked about and partially untangled before planting. Even if mature plants are only moved from one part of the garden to another, they’re going to get their roots cut by the shovel.

I choose the incremental method. Better for the plants, better for my bank account, and better for my back. (I’ve grown weary of digging enormous holes.)

Incremental gardeners have to be patient for results. Transplants aren’t immediately productive. My mom used to have a saying: “first year sleep, second year creep, third year leap.” There’s a lot of truth in it. The first year I transplant something, all I expect from it is to drive its roots deep and survive the seasons. The next year, I’m not disappointed when I see it’s only made modest progress. The display it makes in the third year reminds me why I put it through the indignities of moving in the first place. That’s when I rejoice in its fruitfulness, its beauty, and its abundant good health.

As plants in God’s garden, we go through transplant seasons too. Uprooted from an old, familiar growing place, we find ourselves plunged into the soil of a new and often uncomfortable situation. Fruit seems like yesterday’s news. All we can do is survive.

God’s not disappointed in these seemingly unproductive times. Transplant season isn’t when when our Gardener is looking for big things from us. He encourages us in Zechariah 4:10 not to despise the “day of small things.”

When God’s people first heard this prophecy, they had just been transplanted from the land of exile to the land of Israel. The temple they wanted to rebuild held nothing of the grandeur of the one they were trying to replace. The older generation wept at the sight of what rose from the ashes. It wasn’t at all like it used to be. Through another prophet of the day, God promised this utterly small and completely unsatisfactory production would in fact become greater than what they had known before (Haggai 2:9).

So, if fruit seems long in coming, take heart. God’s not disappointed at your lack of fruit right now. He knows your season. Enjoy the benefits of small while you are small and throw all your energy into digging your toes down deep in the soil where you find yourself. God will see to your increase and you’ll finally enjoy “first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear” (Mark 4:28 KJV).