Just when you think you have it all together…

Over the weekend I looked around the yard at the wildly blooming lilies and pots full of colorful flowers.  I was happy to have harvested 5 more tomatoes along with lettuce, sugar snap peas and green beans.  The cukes were blooming their heads off and vining with big, full leaves; the zucchini and summer squash just birthing the first, small fruit.

I was thinking: nice.  Everything is in bloom and green and enjoyable with so little work from me right now.  All is well.  All is as it should be.

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Loud tornado warning sirens and unexpected gusts of wind last night night changed all of that.  Two storms blew through with hail and torrential rain from 11 pm until the early hours this morning.

Very suddenly, things have changed.  Without warning there has been loss.  I looked around at the wreckage early this morning and I see that some things are gone.  Flowers petals were beat from their stems and litter the ground with green leaves.  Shrubs are flattened, but given time will likely pull themselves back up by their bootstraps.  But there is loss.  Some damage is too severe.   Some things will never recover.

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Pictured above: the mowed-over hollyhocks, the battered elephant’s ear; I think the onions gave their lives for this volunteer marigold which is seemingly unscathed; and the pummeled lemon cucumbers.  Sad.

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Hab. 3.17, 18

 Some peppers plants are finished now, leafless.  But they provided protection to the plants to their right.  Dave’s mammoth grill gave some covering for some of the tomato plants and the herbs held up pretty well.  The things that will survive will be all the more treasured now, with greater gratefulness. 

Thank-You, LORD, for what remains.

6 thoughts on “Just when you think you have it all together…

  1. Wow! You described what happens to a person when they get stormed in real life. Reminds me of that song,…It was such a lovely day…then suddenly without warning a storm cloud entered my life, but even in the storm…I know the Peace Speaker. Some things will never recover, but the things that survive will be all the more treasured now! So true.

    1. Yes, Dawn – I actually FELT the tie between my garden and the things we cherish and then lose. Some things never recover. Some things will be damaged, but there is hope of life and God remains faithful. LOVE that song!
      “I know the Peace-Speaker, I know Him by Name

  2. Sad day…the backyard was looking so good. It still does but..you know:) At least we had people over to see and enjoy it before the big storm!

  3. And don’t forget about the pool ring.
    A hole and all the air went out, so it looks like one of those surface pools in a mansion that seems to flow right off the edge of the patio and you see the ocean beyond. Only for us, the water is right there, on the surface without anything seemingly to hold it in. I suspect that if I’m on my floaty I will sail right off the edge and onto the grass or even worse, onto the cement.
    I tried patching but it didn’t work or I have another hole hiding someplace…
    Alas, I’ll find it lest I slip over the side…

  4. Oh, so sorry to hear about your lose. And the pool…hope you find that leak. At least you didn’t lose any water. We alway lost water, I guess we didn’t have it very level. Good job Dave!

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