We decided to grow a vegetable garden this year. The zucchini are flourishing so that if I don't check the plants daily we end up with giant squash. The lettuce keeps up a regular pace of growth. And the little red Jellybean and yellow pear tomato plants are merrily producing ripe fruit. But my impatience with the larger heirloom tomatoes and red and yellow peppers is growing as fast as those zucchini! There is plenty of fruit on the vines, but the fruit hasn't grown big enough yet and it's still green. The growth of the watermelon plant is almost imperceptible right now. Hmm. So I wait, but impatiently. How quickly I miss the miracle and beauty in the growing and the eager anticipation of tasty "ripe right off the vine" fruit and vegetables...all in good time.

As I watch and wait, checking and re-checking the fruit, looking for a change in color, evidence of ripening, I wonder at my equal impatience with spiritual growth in my life and, if I am honest, in the lives of those around me. I want to be on the short path to holiness and it would be so much easier if those around me were closer to the goal as well. I lose sight of the progress, of the subtle changes in us all. I lose sight of the evidence of God the Spirit's presence in our lives. Yes, one day when we see Christ face-to-face we will finally be completely free of the weight of sin to be be like him, fully to be who He created us to be. John writes, "Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." The true beauty of the fruit, of our redeemed lives, has yet to be revealed. But just like I can tell that the tomato plants have tomatoes and the pepper plans have peppers, so I know that I am His; I belong to Christ. Perhaps the greatest miracle is that God is working through us all even now, even in our imperfection and weakness. And so, John's words are an encouragement to press on toward purity and Christ-likeness, knowing that because Christ has redeemed me and made me His own, one day His work in me will be complete and even now He reveals Himself through the cracks of my life so that it is His glory (not mine) that is revealed.

"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." II Thessalonians 2:16-17

p.s. I just went out to turn the water on and noticed that a few of the heirloom tomatoes are just starting to turn color. I might not have even noticed, but was looking for hope...and found it. :)