Bringing kingdom metaphors to life (with seeds, scraps, and bread dough)

February is still solidly winter, although I’ve noticed that twilight lasts a smidge longer every evening. I’m very grateful for those extra minutes of light, because they remind me that winter can’t last forever. And man… this winter feels long.

Jesus tells us over and over to look to the birds of the air and the plants in the field to help give us new ways to understand the Kingdom of heaven. He talks about sowers planting seeds, of abundance out of scraps, about bread and wine and love. So on days when I wonder how to do something or what to do next, those are the stories I lean into.

For Christmas this year, Mr. Jones and I got each other some shelves and lights and planting trays.

And we also bought a bunch of seeds–70 different plants–for our garden.

And then our friend Zack’s mom gave us a sourdough starter.

Also, our feet have been really cold in the mornings, because our old farm house is built up on piers, so on sub-20 degree mornings, it’s been a wee bit nippy. And have I mentioned it’s been super rainy and the weirdest of weird weather with super limited sunlight that’s making me twitchy and itchy to stretch out in a patch of warmness? Like I said… long winter… not a freezing, miserable, awful winter, but a long one.

To combat my current crankiness, and also because it’s time to do so, we’ve started our onion plants and rosemary plants. They’ve grown so much in the last three weeks! They won’t be ready to go outside–and outside won’t be ready for them–until around the middle of April/beginning of May. But it’s a start.

And I’ve started baking bread for my husband’s lunches and to share with friends, as well as to have with our evening meals. I even figured out a way to give the bread a higher fiber content. And as for those cold, cold old farmhouse floors? I’ve been making rugs out of old bed sheets like it’s my job. Our feet are warmer, there’s a place besides the corners of the room for pet hair to accumulate, and I cleared out a ton of drawer space.

And in the midst of all those things–waiting for plants to germinate, figuring out how hard to squeeze the squirt bottle so I don’t kill them instead of give them a drink, peering at the soil to see if there’s another green shoot, looking at the calendar to see what should be planted next, warming the oven to proof loaves, or shredding up old sheets–Jesus has kept all his promises to me about watching the seasons roll around.

God is making all things new, and the waiting and the resting are holy moments of preparation…when we let them be.

Thanks be to God.

What are you doing to stay centered through late winter?