Garden Story: A Grandmother's Hands
As a child, I had the gift of a large backyard where my grandmother had started a garden. My grandmother is a relentless woman with hardened hands from the work she did every day. The garden was started completely from scratch. The grass removal, mulching, garden design, weeding - it was all done by the hands of my grandmother. Sometimes, I would go to the garden with her and she would show me the new arrivals sprouting from the ground. She grew tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and more. I watched her go out to her garden each day, sometimes in quite unforgiving weather. With her sweat-streaked and dirt-brushed face, she would come back into the house smiling. It gave my grandmother great happiness to serve her home-grown vegetables at our dinner table filled with family members, young and old. She was finally able to see her labor of love in the most tangible way possible as her family took joy in the work of her hands. Ellen G. White says the following about nature:
“Look at the wonderful and beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of man, but of all living creatures. The sunshine and the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator's love. It is God who brings the bud to bloom, the flower to fruit. It is He who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures.”
In the busy lives we live, with the sounds of fast-moving cars, computer keyboard clicks, and the dings of our smartphones, it’s difficult to appreciate the beauty of nature around us and all it has to offer. It’s also hard for us to connect with one another - we hear this constantly in sermons and secular motivational speeches, about how we as a society are moving farther and farther away from human connection because we are more connected to our to-do lists. The memory of my grandmother’s garden encompasses much of what I believe we need in our lives today: connectedness to God’s creations and our fellow man.
Written by: Ann Lee