Drying coneflowers for tea

What’ve you been doing this summer? My friend asked the other day.
Gardening. We’ve been gardening. That’s what.
Those of you who take your gardens seriously may know that it can be just that… serious. In the spring, there’s soil preparation and seed starting, after you’ve planned out what your family needs (and what they will eat). Then in the high heat of summer, there’s daily weeding and watering. Now, with summer winding down, there’s my favorite part: harvesting, enjoying, and preserving.
One fun thing about the garden is that it often surprises me. Plants I thought would do well sometimes… don’t. And I may have a bountiful harvest of something I didn’t even tend at all.
I didn’t always enjoy the “surprises” of gardening. I wanted my work to produce a specific, predictable result. I wanted to know that if I follow the directions and plant my tomatoes to a depth of 1/3 to encourage root growth, that come August, I’ll have tomatoes enough for canning homemade salsa.
But tomato plants don’t always read their own seed packets. Gardening, like life, doesn’t always obey.
It’s taken me five years of gardening to not only accept this fact, but to expect it. Now that I’ve had a little bit of practice, I can go out to the garden in the morning thinking, “What will I harvest today?” And I can be at peace with the surprises I find.
One such surprise is the bountiful echinacea that’s growing in our yard. I didn’t tend it; actually, I didn’t even plant it. But it has grown so prolifically that I’ve been able to harvest the flowers, dry them, and store them for tea that will definitely be welcome come winter (and the inevitable cold/flu season).
The failed tomatoes and bounteous echinacea have taught me something. I can hustle, work, and dig in the dirt to my heart’s content, all while following instructions to the tee – and my plans may fail. Yet the Lord ALWAYS provides (sometimes without me even knowing it until the harvest is right there.)
Yes, there is a time to hustle, to “get it done”. Yes, homemade salsa would be great. Yes, I do plan to try to get my tomatoes right next year.
But I do believe there is a season for everything in this life. Maybe now is the season to remember to Trust Him. To remember that at the end of the day, He knows what we need, and He will take good care of His children. A time to sit, and sip our tea, and just give thanks to Him. A time to remember what Jesus said:
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26)

Clinging to Him,
Laura