More recently, I had become very anxious about terrorism and the potential for how bad it could get in our country. I have a good imagination. I can imagine not only terrorist, but gangs of people taking whatever they can get as basic systems break down, infrastructure like water, electricity, food, and roads are crippled, and police are not sufficient to curb a now lawless society. And it’s really not me that I am so worried about; it’s a lot harder to think about my children being ripped from my arms, tortured, suffering unspeakable things before being murdered. I told you I have a good imagination. And I was letting my imagination run away from my faith that God will never leave me or forsake me, that He will not give me more than I can stand. Over the course of several months, I was really consumed with anxiety. Meanwhile, God was quietly preparing an object lesson before my eyes.
We have a large garden. We grow a lot of vegetables, lots of tomatoes and green beans, peppers, cucumbers, etc. I do a lot of canning. But my garden is not the well-cultivated show place that my neighbors up the hill have. There are four gentlemen, in their 70s, who come out on Tuesday and Friday (and sometimes more frequently) and spend all day tilling and cultivating and working in the garden. They have an electric fence around it to keep out the squirrels, deer, raccoons, etc. My other neighbor is retired. He has all day to putter in his garden. He tills, brings in truckloads of manure, mulches, and has a beautiful garden every year - which he also surrounds with an electric fence. I don’t have the time to put into my garden that way. My three children and the many other activities in which I’m involved preclude me from spending the hours I really should devote to my garden. But during the summer of 2007, their gardens shriveled up and quit. I canned quarts upon quarts of tomatoes and green beans - and started giving away green beans by the bucketful - in July! Both sets of neighbors came to me and asked if I had extra because they didn’t have what they needed!
Suddenly it hit me! God blessed my garden, completely out of proportion to what was happening in the other gardens around me. I felt like God was showing me that He can bless my family and me right where we are. I don’t need to worry about the terrorists or marauding gangs. Jesus Christ is my shield, my Rock, my hiding place. (Psalm 119:114; Psalm 18:2; Psalm 32:7) What can man do to me? (Psalm 118:6,7) I just need to keep my eyes on Him.