Lessons from the Garden

While painting this collection, the phrase “Lessons from the Garden” kept coming to mind. Each piece reflects the beauty of a full harvest, open farmland, or a carefully kept garden—but none of these come to life by accident. They are the result of time, effort, and unseen growth beneath the surface.

Patience
Nothing in a garden happens overnight. You sow seeds, water, and wait. You watch for the tiniest green shoot to push through the soil, trusting that, in time, it will grow and bear fruit.

Resilience
Gardening demands effort—sweat in the soil, hands in the dirt. Weeding, tilling, fertilizing, planting, and eventually harvesting. And even after all that work, the outcome is never guaranteed.

Nurture
A garden requires attention. You cannot simply plant and walk away. Each plant has its own needs—water, sunlight, protection from pests. Growth depends on consistent care and presence.

Trust
In the end, we can do everything within our power to help a garden grow, yet some seedlings will not thrive. The harvest may be small. Pests may come. There is a point where we must release control—do our best, rest in the process, and trust the Maker with the results.

Another Garden
This brings to my mind another garden where one person perfectly embodied patience, nurture, resilience, and trust, carrying the weight of what was to come. In that place, He prayed and wrestled, yet ultimately surrendered to His Father’s will. Even in anguish, He trusted—and through His suffering brought us another lesson, the lesson of love. Perfect love that gives us everything we need to endure, do kingdom work, love one another, and wait with deep hope and peace with our faces turned towards the Son.