So there's all that foliage looking all poor and yellow that needs to be removed because after all, if you are inviting someone to your garden, shouldn't it be something special? Shouldn't it make them say "WOW?" I love having that kind of garden,, but the truth is, I rarely do. We are very family centered. Family things take the front seat and everything else goes to the back seat. My garden doesn't look like I have a staff of gardeners that tidy up the brick path, pull the tiniest of weeds, rake the paths smooth, and make sure all the dead foliage disappears. No, it looks like a house that has that "lived in" appearance. You know, where the walls have some chair bumps, a door doesn't close without sticking, and a couple of soft spots in the floor? That kind of house; my kind, maybe your kind? On Open Garden Day it will have many beautiful blooms, some good color combinations, and some unusual plants (both obvious and tucked away into interesting places). That's the GOOD. It will also have some bricks out of place along the path, some unfinished projects, and maybe a couple of poorly placed plants that just don't go well together (experiments that went woefully wrong). That's the BAD. Oh, yes, and it will have the UGLY too. Weeds here and there despite our best efforts, some dead and missing plants, and some stuff we just should have removed last year, or even last week, but just haven't had time to remove or thought we might give one more try.
In the end, it is the cause that counts. Its for missions work. After thirty something years on this planet, I realized that God gave me, and especially my wife, the gift... the talent of a green thumb. And after forty-two years, I discovered a passion for foreign missions. I know that God delights in the combination of the two.
