Is God Replanting You?

The Spring Sunrise

I have been so grateful that the Holy Spirit has recently been waking me up before the sun. I have been struggling to be diligent in starting my days with my Savior, and I prayed that He would wake me before the sun for the next 100 days. I want to hear the first chirps of the birds in the morning and the delightful sounds of springtime warmth. There is much about spring that I love, as it reminds me of the steadfast love of God that is always present, even after a cold and silent winter. His mercies are here once again as the ground rejoices in the closeness of the sun and life begins to prove itself unhidden.

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A Gardener?

I love it, but I don’t cultivate it well.

However – I DO consider myself a gardener. You see, I have plants that are mine. However, unlike most gardeners, I do not foster thriving, growth, or fruit. No, I actually leave them uncared for and neglected for too long, and then in a moment of desperate attempts to bring them back to life, I overwater and drown them.

So no… I guess in reality, I am not a gardener at all.

Every year, to the chagrin of my forgiving husband, in all optimism, I squander $100–$150 on new plants that I desire to keep alive. The first few weeks of plant motherhood, I do relatively well. I name them, water them, position them correctly near the sunlight, do my research, and in all hope, I press onward as a happy plant mother. But inevitably, I forget them once again and watch them wither away in my neglect. So truthfully, I am not a gardener, despite my desire and intention. I should truly consider myself more of a plant hospice worker, slowly easing my little plants into death with gentleness and respect.

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The True Gardener

This is such a great contrast to our Heavenly Father…

He is a good gardener: faithful and unforgetting. He is the nurturer of all life: gentle, patient, wise, diligent, and perfect in His care and protection of His creation. Not only is He the designer, the planter, the keeper, the pruner, and the harvester of His creation; the birds, the seas, the ground – but His deepest care is placed on us, His children. His greatest concern is the flourishing of His beloved, and with great joy, He celebrates all evidence of His good fruit in us.

This picture of God as the gardener runs throughout the entire Bible. From the explicit creation account in Genesis, to the visions of Israel planted like a garden beside flowing rivers, to the flourishing garden imagery in Song of Solomon. We see it again in Isaiah 61:11, where God shapes the soil of our hearts so righteousness can spring up, and in John 15, where we are called to remain connected to Christ, our true vine. Finally, Revelation 22 reveals the river of God’s life‑giving water restoring creation to its original beauty, where His garden once again flourishes with unrestrained abundance.

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Our Source of Life

Perhaps my favorite gardening analogy is when we are told to walk by the Spirit in Galatians 5:16. Just a few verses later, Paul tells the Galatians that if we live by the Spirit, we must walk by the Spirit, and the result is that the fruit of the Spirit is cultivated in our lives. Paul could have used descriptive language to show us how to act, behave in these ways so that you can prove you are of God. Instead, Paul tells us to walk by His Spirit, and this fruit will pour out.

Our nearness to His presence, our inward connectedness, the utter reliance and dependence on His self that is mingled with our self in the inward being. This is the great mystery, Christ in us. This is how we can say with Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ in me.”

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When God Replants Us

There are times when the fruit of His presence (fruit God is desiring to harvest from within our souls) is not able to be produced in the current parameters we are in.

Sometimes the comfortable container of our lives has walls that limit the depth of the roots.

So, as a loving heavenly Father would, He rips us from the comfort of our current realities, shakes off the entanglements, and plants us into a new home, a different environment where roots can grow deep and stronger in Him.

And as the darkness covers us, the rains come, and the fruit too will follow. You see, not only is He the gardener, but He is the source, our food, the ground, the root, the sun, the water. He is the vine of life‑giving sustenance, and we are the branches, called to reflect His glory.

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Are You in a Season of Replanting?

Praise God for the season of the comfortable container, where roots were thick and scope was small.

And praise Him again for the next, where He is still in control.

It may be dark, intimidating, dry, or wet. But whatever the condition, your good heavenly Father will never let you go hungry. For if He cares for the birds, how much more will He care for you.

-Rachel