Leviticus 26:3-13 
“‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. 

“ ‘I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. 

“ ‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.” (NIV)

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Among the lessons I learned in my first full-time pastorate was the dependability of God. He really is trustworthy and true. 

My weekly paycheck was $300. I know. How was I ever going to spend all of that? Our Baby Boy was three weeks old when I accepted the call to that church around this time of year in 1988. That little boy just turned 38, and today is his tenth wedding anniversary. Let me pause to ponder all of this a moment. 

Now, that boy and his wife actually celebrate the anniversary of their second wedding. The first one was to get them legally wed before the United States Marines shipped him across the country to his next duty station. She had to be in the system before they left, or she would not receive spousal benefits for about six months. It’s a long story with red tape and all that. 

I was a seminary student while we lived in that parsonage with a hole under the sink that went to the wall, and the shower that leaked into the closet in our bedroom. Of course, we had a giant yard that took two hours to mow. 

My bride was not working at the time. It was one of the few times in our marriage that I earned more than she did. It became apparent that if I were to be accepted as a real man in that community of farmers, that I would have to cultivate a garden. It was also apparent that if we were going to eat healthy meals and enough of them, we would have to grow our own. 

And so we did. 

Look back up the page to today’s Bible verses. The second sentence in the second paragraph says, “You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.” After buying a freezer and after my bride learned to can vegetables, we opened the last jar of homegrown beans as the new crop was coming in. 

I think of this passage and others like it every time I recall this memory. I began to understand then, and appreciate more every day, what Numbers 6:24-26 means when it says 

“‘May the LORD bless you 
and protect you. 
May the LORD smile on you 
and be gracious to you. 
May the LORD show you his favor 
and give you his peace.’”

God smiled on us in those days. He still does. 

How have you seen his goodness and faithfulness in your life?

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I will celebrate Our Father in Heaven for turning a little patch of ground behind a rundown parsonage into a little bit of Eden.

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Our Father, I look forward to the garden days when this world is renewed. Streets of gold sound charming. The things you make grow that bless us so is what I most want to enjoy when we walk together in the cool of the evening. Give me ears to hear and a mind to understand all you want to say to me then. May this be so here and now as well. Thank you for your wonderful faithfulness and trustworthiness. You are good all the time. Amen.