Watering the Garden

In the last week, I have been living alone. Out of an abundance of caution and thanks to the generosity of friends and parishioners, William has been able to stay other places away from me as I have recovered from COVID-19. It has been a gift to keep him safe and for me to have the time to recover from my illness. It has also meant that things that William would normally do on a daily basis have fallen to me.

One of those things is taking care of the potted plants around our garden and inside the house. In the heat of the summer months of Phoenix, anyone who gardens will tell you that watering your plants with enough water and just enough frequency is one of the most important things you can do to keep your plants healthy throughout the summer months. Thus, I have found myself watering house plants, misting tropical plants, and applying different treatments to different plants as needed.

Alongside the house plants and potted plants in our garden, we are also beginning to learn about the watering schedule for the plants in our yard. While we have not made decisions about the plants we wish to keep and which ones we might need to find a new home for, we do want to do our best to keep the plants we have as healthy as possible. We find ourselves having to learn more about the drip irrigation system around our home, and we are beginning to discover that perhaps we need to shift that schedule in order to better care for the plants that we have around the garden.

The summer months in the church also seem to be a time for watering. It is a time in which we are invited to prayerfully consider the ministries we want to continue to support in the next program year, and like in a garden in the summer, it is important that we continue to water those ministries that we know we need to continue for the spread of the gospel in our context. On the other hand, we also might find that there are other ministries that have run their course, and while we have cherished memories of what we were able to do through these ministries, it may simply be time to stop watering those ministries. it may be time to use the water that was nourishing those ministries to nourish something new or something different.

In Christ,

Hunter+