"The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. 12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end...then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied."
This passage was such an encouragement to me. It speaks of everything I'm concerned about, the very issues I bring up with my husband all the time - what about irrigation? how will we irrigate our garden, as that was one of our failures over the last few garden attempts. Yet, again, the Lord is so specific in His care for the Israelites. He even assures them about their irrigation. In Egypt they "irrigated it by foot", which I'm assuming meant they had to come up with a manual way of doing it as they couldn't rely on the rain. This past week I read that very thing in a gardening book. It said that if you rely on rain, your garden will suffer as climate change has made rain unreliable now. In other words, you have to establish some form of "irrigation by foot" - i.e., sprinklers or drip watering systems. Yikes. Do you know how much work that is or how much expense that is? You would have to be an engineer or have some kind of unlimited budget to figure out a system of watering a large amount of space.....my head can barely get around it. But then, God, in such a practical way reassures the Israelites EVEN IN THEIR WATERING, that He will care for them, "But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of (crossing that river again) is a land of mountains and valleys THAT DRINKS RAIN FROM HEAVEN. I couldn't believe it when I read it. He cares about the irrigation of my garden. He bothers to include one of their concerns. Does this mean I don't set up a sprinkler system? To be honest, we were planning on it, but what this verse tells me, is to stop worrying about all the things I worry about, even watering the garden. He will help us even in the irrigation of it! And, as the epic Gardener, of all gardeners, He even includes phrases like, "I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil". Crazy. I've been purchasing seeds that say "early growth" and "later growth". Both types of seeds will need the spring rain and the autumn rain. God knows there are different times rain will be more needed because He designed the seeds! He knows how to garden better than I do.
Here is the verse I normally use for a new year, "...it is a land the Lord your God cares for, the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from beginning of the year to its end." Of course it could be referring to January - the way we view our calendar, but the fact it talks about the autumn and spring rains makes me think He is referring to the agricultural year - from the planting to the harvesting and then even to the time when the garden rests throughout the winter. He is watching over the gardens of the Israelites ALL YEAR LONG. That is so cool!
I am just so amazed at how God continues to take every single thing I have a concern about and He just keeps saying, "No, I've got that under control, and that, and that, and that....." Anything I can think of that I'm afraid of or worried about He reminds me of His abilities to control everything - including the rain and how my garden will be irrigated.
I'm running out of the things to worry about so I guess I better just be quiet and watch the Gardener work all things out. Turns out I'm just His assistant.
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