Isaiah 61:11
“For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”
On April 24 2010 at 10:25pm an EF3 tornado with packing winds of 140mph came through downtown Albertville, Al. where I live and carved out a path in Marshall and DeKalb counties for 18 miles. Thankfully no one was killed, but 33 people were injured in Marshall County.
We had been at home that night hearing the sirens, but carelessly had not paid attention to the news, because we were watching a movie. At 10:22pm we turned the channel to listen to the weather report. Immediately we heard the meteorologist say “a tornado will hit Albertville in 3 minutes!” With no time to prepare and go to our cellar I ran to the bedroom to get pillows and then Larry and I ran and jumped into the bathtub. As we sat in that tub praying and holding each other we heard dishes rattle in the kitchen and then a lift as if the house would explode at any moment. It seemed as if time had stopped as we sat in a still deadly silence. Realizing it must have passed by we climbed out of the tub and immediately opened the front door to try to see in complete darkness what it had done. Sadly Albertville was buried in trees and power lines. As people begin to come forth from their homes and examine the damage and check on neighbors we heard cries all through town. We could not grasp what had just happened in such a few minutes to our home, property, and our town.
We were so blessed to have only external damage to our home. We lost nearly all the trees some of which had stood for nearly 100 years, sidewalks were pulled up by huge roots from trees, fences were broken, cars were buried, siding was blown from the house, but our lives were spared and we truly know how different it could have been, because just 2 blocks away houses were completely blown away with not even a foundation standing. Beautiful Million Dollar Avenue {as it is called} landscape was changed forever hardly recognizing it as the same street.
How lives were not lost is truly a miracle from God. Experiencing something like this has changed my response to storms forever. I do heed the warnings, and I try to be more weather alert when storm possibilities are in our forecast, and pray more for safety of those in the paths of storms.
Clean up was overwhelming, but I’ve never seen a community come together and so many volunteers from everywhere that came to our aid in such a caring and loving way. God’s people with such generosity and hard work cleared up the devastation left by the storm.
Reclaiming what had been destroyed now lay before us. The beautiful trees, properties, and gardens would take many years to restore and the effects of the damage will never be forgotten. It took us nearly 2 years just to get the repairs done to the house. In April of 2012 we started on the landscaping we began to dig, plant, and restore what had been destroyed it’s been a process, but what joy it has been watching trees grow and flowers bloom.
Last year in 2016 I finally got a little courtyard that I had wanted since we purchased the house in 2009. It is a very small little rose and hydrangea garden with crepe myrtles, and a beautiful sweet pea tree, behind an arbor that I hope my jasmine vine will cover in time. My little garden is special to me and I can’t wait every spring to see the blooms to begin to unfold. What a blessing to see God’s seed still bringing forth in the ground he spoke into existence.
Enjoying the fruits is awesome isn’t it, but keeping it free from weeds is a job that is never easy for me. Why is it that there are more weeds than bloom? What we don’t want to grow it seems just thrives at times doesn’t it? If I’m not careful and I become slack in my care that precious garden can be over taken and strangled out by those ugly weeds. Care of the garden is a choice I have to make or it is lost.
We are reminded in Genesis after Adam and Eve sinned that the beautiful garden that God had provided for them was too lost to them forever because of their choice, their carelessness, and their attention being overtaken by something they thought was more important. They no longer got to enjoy the fruits and beauty of the garden that was a gift, and now had to leave, and go live in a place where the ground would be cursed with thistles and thorns that they would have to toil and labor to tend it by the sweat of their brow.
As I formed a plan to reclaim my garden after the storms devastation the Holy Spirit reminded me how God the Father had a plan from the foundation of the world to reclaim that which was lost in the Garden of Eden. His only son Jesus Christ who was with him from the beginning would leave his home and give his life for us so we could once again be united by the Father. What a sacrifice, what love he has for us to leave all the beauty and splendor of heaven, and come and be the mediator for us to bring us back to the holy state in which we had been created.
Isaiah 61:3 says “To give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”
Can you believe we are called trees of righteousness and the planting of the Lord? It took a great gardener to do that for us didn’t it? In John 20:15 after Christ had died and rose from the dead that Mary was weeping at the tomb, and she saw Jesus, but assuming he was the gardener, until he spoke her name then she knew it was her Lord. What Mary first assumed was so correct; he was the gardener he had come to redeem that which was his from the beginning which only his righteousness could make us trees of righteousness and the planting of the Lord. By his stripes we are healed!
My heart’s desire is to be fertile ground that will produce seeds of his righteousness that bear fruit for his glory. Seeds of hope, peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, and meekness are plantings of the Lord that will remain fruitful till He comes again.
May we all bloom where we are planted………..
Diane Mann
Lean Into Jesus Ministries
#dianemannblogs