Too early!

In a garden one of the things you can’t control, unless you’re a super experienced exhibitor for the Chelsea Flower Show or similar, is the timing of when your plants will do what you hope they will do. And even for them there must be some level of uncertainty. I’ve got an apricot tree that always flowers too early; it’s out now, which is ridiculous. It snowed this morning and there aren’t any bees about, so I might be out there with my little paintbrush, trying to fertilise the blossom. It is stunning when in blossom, but please not now! And now I have to hope we don’t get a sharp frost to damage the blossom and send it crashing to the ground.
 
I must admit that this tree produces the most delicious apricots. So, every year I sit here, at my kitchen table, where I’m writing this blog, watching and hoping that it’s not going to flower too early. But yes, it’s done it again. It’s too early! So, I have just got to hope and pray that things will work out and I will get some apricots in a few months’ time. It did the same thing last year, blossomed too early, and we didn’t get very many at all. The year before we got bucket loads of them, so I just have to wait and see, I suppose. It’s like that with gardening, you put things in and you hope. You’re either going to get caught out by frost, slugs, or a cat or fox coming and digging it up, or something eating it. On my allotment people’s pears mysteriously disappear each year, and we are convinced that someone is taking them. So, we don’t know what is going to happen, really; we’ve just got to hope and trust.
 
But God is neither too early or too late, but always on time.
 
So, if you’re waiting for something, hoping for something, praying for something, then keep trusting that God’s answer will be on time, even if it’s not exactly what you want. Maybe not your timing, maybe not my timing, but it’s his timing.
 
Unlike my apricot tree, He’s never too early, never too late, but always on time.
 
 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” (Jeremiah 29:11-12)

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash