A new season

It’s fall! A new season.

You can tell by the crisp morning air, the warm afternoons, people – including me – tending to their gardens and yards to ready them for the new season. Maintaining them sometimes is all it gets, mow, water. Well to really make it flourish you have to do more than maintain.

You need to pull weeds, turn the soil, plant new bulbs, throw in some fertilizer then mulch to keep it warm during the cold months. Yes, the extra care you put into it now, are amazing in the spring when the gardens start blooming with color.

Our lives are a lot like gardens. We sometimes need to prune branches, turn over the soil, plant new bulbs, mix in some fertilizer to grow with the new season. Changing how we take care of our garden can be a challenging process, but a necessary one to allow room for new growth, which in turn brings new color, new life.

How can our garden continue to grow, to bloom with bright new colors? We need to continue to maintain the garden … pull weeds, water, but we need to add in the fertilizer, God’s word and the water of the Holy Spirit. Then top it off, we need to apply the mulch of good fellowship, worship, and prayer. The result is a vibrant colorful garden with hope of new life that will stand out brightly in the kingdom of God.

God has planted good thing in each of us. Cultivate the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, the fruit of your garden (Galatians 5:22-23).

It’s fall, tend to your garden … we have the mulch of fellowship, worship and prayer with a new Sunday evening service at 5:30 p.m. with children and youth fellowship at 6:30 p.m.

Lauri Beach

First United Methodist Church