But then came June 9th. I had led worship at Redeemer, Tomahawk, on Saturday evening, and then led our worship at Trinity on Sunday morning. (And I hadn’t even had a cookie for a snack—confer the June 9th children’s message.) After worship I ran a few errands in Minocqua. Then it was back home to a major landscaping project that I wanted to get closer to completion. By 8:45 PM, I was plumb tuckered out. Into the house I went. I grabbed a beverage (perhaps German in nature), put my feet up in the Lazy-boy and turned on the TV. I started to scan local channels for something to watch, but in just a few minutes, I started to zone (translate. . .snooze). But I slowly regained consciousness when I noticed the alert that kept scrolling across the top of the screen. A frost advisory! For Price County. . . What? Now I was awake! The weather alert kept scrolling, county-by-county, until there it was. VILAS COUNTY!
“You have got to be kidding me!” I glanced at the clock. It was a few minutes after 9. But all my garden was planted. All my flower pots. And my beautiful hanging pots. Was I willing to play Weather Russian roulette? No. Not after all the work of expanding my garden, prepping, and planting! So I grabbed my head-lamp and headed outside. A deck box in my garden held the sheets and clothes pins I needed for the job. So I spent the next hour covering my garden and all my flower pots. I brought the hanging pots into the garage for the night.
Monday morning, I uncovered everything. I continued to work on my landscaping project. I did some writing and paperwork. Then I reviewed my sermon for Trinity’s Monday night service and headed over to church.
After worship, as I greeted members, several informed me, “There’s a frost advisory for tonight. I already covered all my plants.”
“YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!” Armed with this information, I raced home, covered my sensitive garden plants, my flower pots, and brought the hanging pots back into the garage again for the night. This morning, I reversed the process yet again. As I did, I thought, “Why, oh why, do I garden? Eagle River’s got a Farmer’s Market every Wednesday and Sunday. Minocqua’s got one on Friday. St. Germain on Mondays. Rhinelander has their Hodag Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. Add in a few others, and there’s one every day!”
But. . .I will keep on gardening. Why? In part, because of the headline originally planned for this week’s article. “He restores my soul.” (Psalm 23:3) Those are the words that bubble up into my mind and heart whenever I’m puttering in the garden. Watering the planters. Sowing another crop of lettuce. Pulling the first radish of the season, picking the first cucumber or tomato, or harvesting a 5 1/4 pound kohlrabi (as I did last year.) Getting my hands dirty in the soil relaxes me. Refreshes me.
And I will also keep on gardening because of Pastor A.T. Degner. He’s the pastor who confirmed me in 1969 at St. John’s, Newtonburg, WI. Pastor Degner often said that every pastor ought to garden. (And he did!) Pastor Degner felt that the lessons learned in the garden carried over into the care of souls in the ministry. Weeding. Watering. Nurturing. Fertilizing. And sowing. Always sowing, and knowing that only the Lord above can make things grow.
I’ve never forgotten Pastor Degner’s sage advice about gardening. It was his way of helping me grasp what the Apostle Paul’s words would mean for my ministry, and the ministry of others.
“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are ministers through whom you believed, and each served as the Lord gave him his role. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but it is God who causes the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)
All glory be to the Lord alone who makes our gardens and our churches grow!
Privileged to serve,
Rev. Glenn Schwanke