It Came to Pass

 

   Fifty-six years ago we bought a 1.3 acre plot of ground from my uncle and built a house. We moved into it in the fall of 1968. The following spring we planted grass around the house and started a garden behind the lawn. Our family grew and the garden wasn't large enough to grow all the food I needed to can and freeze to feed them. 

   I don't remember which year it was when we doubled the size of the garden. It then stretched the entire length of our land and was the width of the space between the trees on the picture below. It was about four-tenth of an acre. Our neighbor plowed and disced it for us every spring with his tractor.

Looking from top to bottom (above) and bottom to top (below)

    A garden that size was a lot of work, but it takes a lot of food to grow five boys and a girl. They all helped with the work of growing and preserving the food. We had a strawberry patch and planted all sorts of vegetables. At the peak of our gardening, it was taking six cups of corn for one meal. The garden was not big enough to grow enough corn, so the corn for freezing came from Grandpa's farm. 

    After some of our children married we cut the garden in half and planted grass in the top half. As the size of the family decreased, so did the garden. We cut the width in half sometime later.  I don't have pictures of every decrease until 2009 when we cut it in half again.

   Leroy worked up  the ground with a tiller behind the garden tractor and we planted grass in the top half.

   The garden now was mostly for fresh eating. We planted peas, lettuce, onions, and cabbage in April. Then in May we planted potatoes, corn, green beans, and tomatoes. I also planted a row of Cana tubers along the right edge.

   We cut the width of the garden in half again when we were empty nesters. After a disastrous garden season in 2024, we decided the time had come to give up gardening. There are so many produce farmers in the area we can easily get fresh produce without the work of gardening. Leroy said, "It will mow easier than it will hoe."

    Yesterday our youngest son came and planted grass in the small remanent of what had once been a huge garden. The garden had been doubled once and reduced four times. The fifth time it was reduced to zero. It came to be and passed into history. But oh the memories we made in that garden!

  

The Same God

   Yesterday I read the story of Gideon in Judges 6. God called him to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. He hesitated and asked God for a sign. First he asked that a fleece he laid out would be wet with dew in the morning and the grass dry. When that happened, he still hesitated and asked for the opposite---that the fleece would be dry and the grass wet. As I read the story I was reminded of something that happened ten years ago.

   Stephen Burkholder was serving with a mission in Nepal. On April 25, 2015, there was a 7.8 earthquake with the center about 53 miles northwest of the capital city of Kathmandu. Aftershocks continued for several days. Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese were homeless with entire villages flattened. Tents were suddenly the hottest item on the market and sold out quickly. Stephen found a place in India to get tarps and was involved in their distribution. 

   One day he was sitting beside a little country road with a pile of tarps waiting for a truck. One of the men helping with the work called and said there was a hailstorm where he was and it was heading Stephen’s way. He could see it coming and there was absolutely no place to go for protection. He prayed, “Lord, I’m here on your business and I’d really rather not get wet and pounded by hail.” He sat there watching the storm coming and eventually it was lightning and hailing all around him. He didn't have a fleece, but the spot where he was sitting stayed dry.

    Our God is still the same God! He still does the same miracles if we ask.