$1000 Tomatoes
The joke in my household is how much tomatoes cost. In the store, they can run anywhere from .89 a lb up to even a few dollars a pound. But, MY tomatoes--the ones I grow, the ones in the elaborate garden we created, would probably price out at several hundred dollars. If all the materials and all the labor to build and grow are added up, the shiny little red rotunds of goodness would most likely equal that of a Rodeo Drive shopping day. Hence, the running comments that I grow thousand dollar tomatoes!
My response--Don't bag on my tomatoes!
Oh, they may compute out cost far more than mass produced globs of tasteless edibles, but they are so much more. They represent something far more needed than an occasional vegetable hitting our digestive systems. They represent the time I spend with God.
When I leave the confines of my house and walk out to my garden, I know what awaits me. It's solitude. It's a space that my mind wonders and my thoughts flourish. It's a space that more times than not, I chat with God and He chats back. It is a flurry of living wonderment that represents everything good that God creates.
A bit over the top, Renae? Yeah, maybe. But I think--no, I know--that we all need that kind of space to go to, to meet with God. His own Son did the same, "But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray." Luke 5:16
In this crazy world of constant bombardment of stuff coming at us, we must find ways to quiet the noise. God certainly knew that the world would be this way in this day and time, so He knew we would need reminders. "Be still and know that I am God..." Psalm 46:10. Words that have direct meaning for us today, as much as they meant centuries ago! And, may I add, doesn't just reading the mere words of be still evoke calmness in your heart? It's like saying a collective, "ahhhhh".
God knows we need those times. We need those places. We need to have the stillness in our days to know the deepness of His grace.
Oh friends, I can't encourage you enough to find that space. To find those precious times of being still. To quiet your hearts and your minds to hear what our Creator wants to tell you. That quietness enables our hearts to become tilled even deeper with what God wants to give. Please know, I'm not trying to guilt another to-do item on to your lists, I'm praying that you find the rest you absolutely need. Not another study, or lesson, or prayer time increase--no, it's just the opposite. When we become still in Him, He becomes alive in us.
Busy is good. Work is good. Planning is good. But without the quietness to know what the Great Achiever wants of us, then all of that work is futile.
My space happens to have soil and plants. Your space may be a quiet corner in a quiet house. Or a solitude walk in your neighborhood. Or a chair on a balcony. Whichever it is, make it yours! Stake it and claim it. Find that place where being still becomes the avenue of meeting with God and hearing what He has to say.