Those who garden have a gift of accepting things as they are. They know certain plants cannot be planted beside others. They accept the need for acidic or alkaline soils. They know there’s “a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant” (Eccles. 3:2).

Accepting the ways of nature gives practice in accepting the ways of life. A parent ages, a spouse dies, a child is diagnosed with an incurable disease, violence comes to a quiet town. “This can’t be happening! Not to me, not to my family, not in my town!” we exclaim. When hardships occur, we can return to the garden, look around to all we have accepted as “the way things are” and ask the God of Creation for the grace of acceptance.