A Garden of Trust

(circa 1985-88)

The setting of our new home was a masterpiece of God’s handiwork. The mountains were breathtaking; the air was fresh and invigorating; the surrounding forest beckoned us to explore. Our fragile means of support, however, was tenuous at best. Our survival depended solely upon God’s provision and, you know what? He did a really good job. I will never know how we made it. Mathematically it made no sense. But we were never late on a house payment. We always had food on the table, clothes on our backs, lights turned on and enough heat to keep our house warm in the winter. And gradually our maintenance business grew. However, there was no room in our budget for any extras.

A LANDSCAPE CHALLENGE

Whatever house Bill and I have ever lived in we have made improvements. It’s important to us to make our home a place that feels comfortable and welcoming, not only inside but outside as well. Our new house was just that: very new, and very, very plain. So we set about to change that. After we worked on the inside, we took a hard look at the outside. There was NO landscaping – no trees, no shrubs, no grass, no flowers – just dirt, and a lot of weeds. The description in the real estate listing said, “Landscaping – Natural”. Um, yes, it certainly was natural – way too natural.

But how do you do landscaping with no money? Here’s where God sweetly stepped in…

It all began with our next door neighbor. He was putting sod in his front yard and had some left over. So he asked us if we wanted it. Absolutely! After thanking John (and God) we had a small patch of green grass in the back yard that I could admire and wiggle my toes in. And that was just the beginning.

MOSS ROCKS – AND A SNAKE!

Flower beds would be so nice, I pondered, but we had no money for blocks or bricks or even concrete. However, there was a huge forest 2 blocks from our house that had millions of volcanic rocks, covered with moss that would look beautiful for the borders. One sunny day when Bill was out working and the kids were at school, I grabbed some gloves, loaded up our Chevy Blazer with our trusty dog, Muffin and headed into the forest.

I hadn’t gone too far until I came upon a perfect spot with moss rocks everywhere. I could just picture the beautiful flower beds that I would create from these rocks and began gathering the rocks and piling them into the car. Suddenly I heard a loud HISSSSSS! Startled, I looked up and there, several feet from me, was a huge, very unhappy snake that had raised itself up about 3 feet tall, staring menacingly at me with his mouth wide open, hissing loudly. I froze, my heart beating wildly, trying to keep myself from panicking.

I took a good look at him. I didn’t hear a rattle. That was a good sign. His head wasn’t a triangle shape. That’s another good sign. This must be a bull snake, I surmised. They aren’t poisonous but could likely deliver a pretty nasty bite. So I resolutely determined that he was not going to deter me from my task.

I began to talk to the critter as I looked him straight in the eye and told him, “Look, little snake, I’m not going to harm you or your home. I just want a few rocks. So just calm down, let me put the rest of these rocks in my car and I’ll be on my way.” And I finished loading my car while not taking my eyes off the snake.

Meanwhile, Muffin was off, running around, sniffing everything, and digging little holes in the ground, happily oblivious to my trauma. After we got safely into the car I chided her, “What kind of dog are you, Muffin? You are supposed to heroically protect me and take care of me. You are a failure as ‘man’s best friend’!” Her ears and tail began to droop and she looked very sad. Then I felt bad.

As I left the area, that snake was still poised as before, still hissing, with his mouth wide open. Muffin and I arrived home, safe and sound and I gratefully unloaded all my rocks – and, after a struggle with my conscience, I apologized to poor Muffin.

DIRT – REALLY?

Next came designing my flower beds. I wanted to create a yard with some beauty and character but our yard was hopelessly flat and boring. So I thought, if I could just build a little hill by the fence and build several layers of flower beds, that would look so lovely. But I needed dirt. Where was I going to get dirt? So I decided to talk to God about it and I prayed, “Lord, would you please provide some dirt for me?” (Then I chided myself. Did I just pray for dirt? Really? What a stupid thing! Imagine – praying for dirt of all things!)

Conveniently forgetting what I had just done, I went in the house to drink some iced tea when my phone rang. It was my next door neighbor. She had no idea what I was doing in my yard and asked me (I kid you not), “Donna, would you like some dirt? We are putting on an addition to our house and the guys who are digging the foundation need a place to put some dirt.” I stood there, dumbfounded, amazed that God would answer such a stupid prayer so quickly. So apparently I guess it’s not stupid to pray for dirt after all.

A little while later a guy drove into our back yard with his skip loader full of dirt and deposited it just where I wanted. Yep, when God answers prayer, he really delivers!

FLOWERS

The flower beds were ready but now I needed some flowers. However, I couldn’t afford to buy any. But I thought of a possibility. There was a grocery store down the highway from us. It was built on a hill and that hill was covered with the most beautiful white Shasta daisies and yellow coreopsis flowers. They were just growing wild.

So casting aside any sense of dignity, I called the store manager and asked him if he would mind if I came and dug up some of those flowers. I’m sure he thought I was some kind of nut case (and he was probably right) but he graciously allowed me to come and dig to my heart’s content. He even told me that if anyone gave me a hard time to come and talk to him and he would vouch for me. And so I loaded up my car with a shovel and buckets and gloves and dug up some of the beautiful flowers, ignoring the odd stares from people as they drove by.

Those flowers grew and propagated and grew so thick and beautiful I would have to thin them out twice every summer. I even gave some to friends for their gardens. Isn’t that just like God? Whatever he gives, he grows and multiplies and gives even more.

ASPEN TREES

Then we decided we needed some trees. For ten dollars we could get a permit from the Forest Service to dig up as many as 20 aspen trees from the forest. Our neighbor across the street knew all about trees and gave us some great advice about digging up and re-planting aspen trees. Our next door neighbors wanted to get some trees too so we set off into the forest together, dug up 40 young aspen trees and brought them home.

As soon as we got home we planted those trees and as each tree was lovingly placed into the soil, I prayed for it – that it would grow healthy and strong. I had never prayed for trees before and the thought crossed my mind – how stupid to pray for trees. Does God really care about my trees? Actually, he does. Out of the 20 trees we planted, 18 survived and grew tall and strong and even propagated more trees until several years later our yard grew a forest of beautiful aspen trees.

A “RIVER” OF ROCK

In the front yard, next to my “hill” which was full of Shasta daisies and coreopsis flowers, I thought it would be nice to create a “river” out of river rock. Of course, I couldn’t afford any rocks. However, Bill had gotten a job to do work on some medical offices. The buildings had raised foundations and some skunk families had decided to make their homes underneath the buildings. Their pungent stench did not provide a pleasant atmosphere for the patients and the doctors wanted them GONE! So Bill’s job was to create a barrier, “evict” the skunks late at night while they were out foraging and keep them from returning. So he built some barriers to put around the foundations of each building and reinforced the bases with … river rock! And he just happened to have some left over – just enough for me to create my “river”.

BECOMING LIKE A CHILD

Matthew 18:3-4 says, “And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”

A funny thing happens when you become dependent on God. You become real and honest. Over the years, however, I had developed a “holy façade”. My small concerns had, in my religious mind, become too trivial for me to pray about. I had become too grown up – too spiritually sophisticated. I grew up going to church three times every week, Christian summer and winter camps, learning Bible stories and memorizing Bible verses. I went to Bible conferences and Bible studies. It was wonderful, BUT I had forgotten something very crucial – something so vital to the Christian life, without which, I was spiritually destitute. I had forgotten to be simple. I had forgotten to be like a child, simply loving and trusting my heavenly daddy.

As I considered praying for DIRT, those verses about becoming like a child came back to me and God spoke to me through them: “It’s okay to pray for dirt. Don’t be so grown up. Be as simple as a child. Children pray for all kinds of little things. I want you to pray about anything – even dirt – and rocks – and flowers – and trees. I’m your father and I love you and I care about everything that you care about”.

No, landscaping wasn’t a necessity. We didn’t NEED to landscape our yard. After all, God was miraculously providing all of our necessities. But he just stepped in to provide something that we WANTED: sweet little blessings, straight from our loving father to us, his “little” children. Why would God care about dirt? Because he cares about ME! Now I was free from my religious sophistication to pray about anything, no matter how stupid.