Growing Vertically and Horizontally

A Journal During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Reflections and Inspiration from Maple Grove
May 24, 2020

We are now in the tenth week since the stay-at-home order was issued, and we are glad to have entered what they call the "yellow phase" of reopening the country with some eased restrictions. That is a bit of relief, and we are hopeful that we can continue to move toward what we think of as "normal." It would also seem that the winter weather is finally behind us.  What a month of May it has been. Nothing has seemed normal.  With no more frost warnings in the forecast, I was able to plant my Kitchen Garden this week.  I had started tomato and pepper plants from seed back in the middle of March, and I was so happy to transplant them outdoors. I have a small Kitchen Garden, 16x16 feet, so I practice the square foot and vertical methods of gardening.  Last year I decided to try to grow pumpkins vertically. That was a challenging experience, but mission accomplished!

As I was outside this week with my hands in the soil and the warm sunlight on my face, I felt very grateful to God for His creation and His love for all of us.  I have often heard relationship with God described as a vertical one.  I suppose that comes from thinking of Christ as "ascended on high," and this past week we did celebrate His Ascension to His position of glory, seated at the right hand of the Father.

Before ascending, Jesus promised He would be with us always, to the very end of the age, and some day He will return from on high. The image of His cross reminds us of both our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with each other.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-39).

God created us to be in a loving relationship with Him and with each other. Broken relationships, both vertically and horizontally, are the result of sin and disobedience. On the cross Jesus provided the means of reconciliation between us and God and with each other:  Forgiveness.

"Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32).

My gardening, vertically and horizontally, reminds me of my relationship with God and with people. Without a right relationship with God, it is not possible to have right relationships with others.  And without right relationships with others, I am not living the life for which God created me and intends me to live.  I need to keep growing in these relationships. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, there is forgiveness and reconciliation.

Lord Jesus, thank you for your sacrificial love and obedience to God the Father.  Through your life, death and resurrection, you have offered forgiveness to all. To those who believe, you have promised eternal life with you in glory.  Help me, O Lord, to grow in my relationships, trusting in You, and loving and forgiving others as you have done for me. In your name I pray.  Amen.

Links:

St. Luke Worship Service - May 24, 2020

Coronavirus Journal:

May 17, 2020 - God Bless America
May 10, 2020 - Cleaning and Repairing Cluckingham Palace
May 3, 2020 - Be a Child
April 26, 2020 - Serve a Very Cheery Pie
April 19, 2020 - Waiting and Waiting
April 12, 2020 - Planting for New Growth
April 5, 2020 - The Grass is Always Greener
March 29, 2020 - Stay at Home
March 22, 2020 - Look Beyond the Challenge

Growing Pumpkins Vertically

Other Devotions by Katie:

Pea Gravel
Red Sky at Night