More From Jane Rager

Our garden has grown and flourished since I wrote this devotion two years ago, and a lot in my life has happened as well.  The next year my husband refinished our deck, so my garden—containers and all—got relegated to the yard.  Coincidentally, this was when the pandemic hit.  Both the garden and my life were changed radically.  I learned to care for my garden in this new situation, reminding me of how God cares for us when we are put in different situations. 

I began using a fertilizer that the deer population hated and my plants loved, so the plants got the food they needed to grow.  My church ramped up its livestream process for worship, maknig worship possible even when we could not enter our church and giving us the spiritual food that we needed so badly.  My husband set up hoses, which made it easy for me to get water to the plants. And our small groups became familiar with zoom so my soul was also watered frequently.

I love being in my garden.  It is the one place where things seem the same as they were before the pandemic.  As I tend the plants, feed the birds, and breathe the fresh air, I feel very close to God and remember Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (NIV).