"But, it can't frost! I just planted all my tomatoes, cauliflower and pepper plants! There are carrot, spinach, lettuce and radish plants all just above the ground - and potatoes just put in the ground! It can't frost!" is what I thought this morning when one of the faith family walked in the door asking if I had heard the latest forecast. Then I wondered if asking that it not frost was an acceptable petition to 'slip into the prayers' during the prayers of the day in worship . . . hmmmm. It is amazing how much more personal the weather becomes when it is your ox that is getting gored, your garden that is in danger, your fields that are at risk.
Yet, isn't that exactly how God looks at each one of us . . . as God's own personal planting for which God is personally, even Divinely, responsible? Isn't that what Jesus' presence among us is all about, God's personal petition on our behalf, fending the heat of the gates of hell away from where we are living and growing? Isn't that what Jesus' prayer from the Gospel of John recalls as Jesus prays that we may be one, even as God in Jesus are one? That in all kinds of weather, there is nothing which can freeze us out or burn us down? Isn't that what the empty tomb proclaims?
People have often chided me about making personal requests of God for particular kinds of weather for whatever it is that is going on in their lives, i.e., rain in a dry time, sunshine for a wedding, warmth at night to encourage plant growth, etc . . . to which my pat response has always been, "I'm in sales, not management. The weather is up to the 'Boss'." Yet, today, I am really wondering about how to broach the topic of frost on tender plants with the 'Boss'. Well, Jesus said, "Whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you", so I'm asking that God's wisdom and wonder prevail . . . and I am covering our plants just in case that wisdom and wonder includes frost. The weather is, after all, God's gift of ongoing creation and, as much as we want to believe we are in charge, every so often, God's creation reminds us that God isn't done with what God is doing . . . and our grand plans are humbled in prayer before God's throne.
"Maybe if I remind God that the farmers have a lot of wheat getting really tall and that frost at this time would be catastrophic, not only to the farmers, but also to thousands, even millions of hungry people all over the world . . . . ." How far will I go in bargaining for my own need? How much will I promise? How much can I beg? Oh, for pity's sake . . .
God has always shown how far God will go to save our very lives, that should be enough. Let faith and common sense prevail: trust . . . . . and cover the plants which are tender.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Don
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