Gardeners can sometimes be an impatient group of people. Most times they pour over the seed catalogs when they begin to arrive in December and January. Long evenings are spent dreaming of flowers and vegetables…bees and butterflies.

Seeds are ordered and perhaps new rose bushes. Paper cups with seed starter appear in the greenhouse or on the sunporch. The warmth and water do their magic and seeds sprout. Hope rises in the heart of the gardener.

Some years the spring teases us. There will be warm days and we hope against hope that the cold is gone. We know there are still winter days ahead but hope that maybe it won’t be many of them. Some years the cold drags on through the middle of March and hope fades for an early growing season. Other years spring does arrive early and by May the gardener sees his garden “taking off”.

But some years it’s not the warmth or the cold…it’s the rain. Week after week, rain comes sometimes one to three inches a week. The ground becomes saturated. There is no way to break up the garden and prepare to plant. If you try to break up wet land…it’s disastrous.

We see folks buy plants too early or try to plow in the mud. Both lead to trouble.
We think if we just work hard enough or believe enough we can plant before we should. We try to force things. We plow before the ground is dry enough. Or we put delicate plants in the ground and they are killed by the cold. We have to plant again. And for whatever reason, this year, it’s just not time. The earth just isn’t ready yet.

We can’t stop the rain. We can’t make the sun shine long enough or hot enough. We need to be patient and wait for Him. He knows when we should plant. He knows what is best. He is preparing all things.

But I can’t tell you how guilty I am of trying to “force” things to make them work when Abba God just plainly shows the time is not yet. It’s not time for that prayer to be answered. All situations haven’t been put in order or worked out. It’s not the time to begin that project. He has the perfect answer at the perfect time. We must trust His timing.

I try to hold on to this. To have faith that I can trust Him. For answers. And for the perfect timing.