When I think of my journals, so many entries are about the garden. I’ve said for years that, “God wouldn’t have put us in a garden if He didn’t think we should be gardening.” I can’t find that in the Word…but certainly holds true for me. The garden seems to unlock treasures for me.

Seedlings are amazing. They are so young and tender. If handled improperly, they can be broken off and destroyed. We handle newly sprouted seeds with great care. After all the preparation and planting it would be a shame to thoughtlessly mishandle the seedling and break it.

Baxter planted corn this year. Corn may be his all-time favorite vegetable. He had plowed the garden until the ground was perfect for planting and in went the seed. We had about an inch of hard rain in the next couple of days. The ground dried hard as a rock.

In a few days, up sprouted the corn. The shoots are tender. Even though they are so delicate the corn had pushed through that hard dirt. It made no difference to the corn how hard the dirt had become, tender as the sprout was, it sprouted anyway. How does such a tender, delicate sprout make its way through hard dried dirt? I don’t know the science of it. But the marvel and wonder of experiencing it I do know. It’s inspiring to see.

I wonder if that’s how we are to be in this world…I wonder if our hearts are to be soft and tender… filled with the love of Christ. At the same time, be tough enough to push through the hard exterior of the world proclaiming Jesus Christ and His love and salvation.

If we are just tender, without the tough armor of God couldn’t we be trampled underfoot? Considered weak? If we are just tough, could we be justly accused of lacking love? When I look at the tender shoots of corn…I wonder.

I think I want to be like that seedling…filled with the tender love of Jesus and clothed with His armor.