First Fruits

We are the proud parents of a garden! This may not sound very exciting to you, but to our family, we’re thrilled! We started our first real garden this summer. My husband and I will be married for 18 years on the 23rd and this is our first one. We are so excited! What still keeps surprising me is how our kids are responding to the garden.

They are just as excited as we are. You’d think we have a baby in the house. Todd goes to work at 5:30 am and checks on the garden before he leaves for work. We check the garden in the mornings when we get up, at lunch and again in the evening. Then when Todd gets home, he checks it again. Every little change is noticed, every blossom on every plant is noted and praised. My kids are 14 1/2, 12 1/2, and almost 10 years old. Most of their friends could care less and don’t get their enthusiasm.  Emily is so proud of her garden that she wants to have her 10th birthday party this Saturday in a tent right beside of the garden. So, we are having her birthday party at 10:30 am so it won’t be so hot.

Yesterday, we picked our first vegetable from our garden, a squash! We were so excited that we had to fry it up immediately at 10:45 am. It was the best squash we’d ever had. But, why all the excitement you may ask? After all, it’s just a garden and I grew up around gardens. Was I that excited about gardening when I was a kid? I thought about something my grandfather told me when I got married or should I say asked me year after year. Where is your garden? Have you started it yet? You’re not really living until you have a garden.

So why are we so excited? First fruits! The Bible talks about giving our first fruits to God. Whether our first fruits are vegetables, our kids, or ourselves, we’re to offer them up to Him daily. We’re to give Him our best and I think that’s why we’ve been so excited around here. We have prayed and prayed over our little garden and now it’s producing.

It’s the same raising a family, you start with hope, love, some seeds, add water, good fertilizer, pull the weeds, get rid of anything that robs your little plants, get rid of the bugs, and watch it grow till harvest. Plus add a ton of patience! Also, cover it with prayer and then right before your eyes you have your first fruits that you can offer to God!