Unseen Slow Growth of Fruit

Suddenly, there is harvest enough to share in the veggie garden.

We poured over the seed catalog, choosing what sounded like the best varieties for our climate and growing season. Tiny seeds of some long-growing items were prayerfully placed in potting soil inside the warmth of the Stone Cottage while winter's tale still wagged bitter cold outside. As Spring began to peek through the gray skies of Winter's end, we carefully prepared the plot and planted seeds and transplanted tenderly cared for seedlings.

And then we waited.

And weeded.

And watered.

And weeded.

And waited.

And weeded some more...

And now, as Summer saunters proudly across mid-2015, displaying the many-colored wonders of her blooming, growing, refreshing warm beauty like a peacock's tail, we all at once see more than just petunias blooming. Green bean bushes overnight hold up myriad dainty white flowers atop full, lush foliage; rampant green tomatoes hang from still flower-bedecked happy plants; lettuce, kale, chard, nasturtium, mustard, and herbs beg to become nightly salads; pumpkin leaves grow large and begin to crawl on eager vines across their beds, as upon them the first deep yellow flowers dance; peppers peak from behind rain-kissed stems; beat greens reach up and promise beautiful red sweetness beneath; and in a blink, the first baby zucchini emerge from their own orange-gold flowers, underneath a canopy of willing broad leaves.


 Steps from these unfolding miracles, in a peaceful stall in the heart of the barn, an old, stubborn doe nibbles an apple, takes a long drink of cool water, and begins to contentedly chew her cud, in a quietly grand display of the grace and moxie of goats. My heart flutters again with hope that continues to determinedly stare down fear with humble prayers built of faith.

And as as watermelon vines reach across their space in a warm greeting to their muskmelon neighbors, their growth a phenomenon that daily surprises the eyes with new green lengths marching toward sweet, ripe, delicious completion, I realize it may be slow and unseen, but fruit does come in it's due time, whether or not my limited sight can observe it as it does.

"Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)" 

~Hebrews 10:23