Just Planting Daisies

It is planting season again & I am Soooo excited! I Love all things Spring and green! There is something about being back out in God’s creation that just makes me feel alive again! The spring weather, the sunshine, the freshly tilled field,  and the newly planted fir & pine saplings just warms my soul! 

This is our fourth year of planting, and well it hasn’t exactly turned out as I had hoped. By now, I thought we would have half grown trees and been closer to having people come to our farm to harvest their own live Christmas tree, but we now have less than half of the trees which we’ve planted still alive. It seems that we will have to just keep planting and trust that God will soon bring all our hard work to fruit. 

I have had the idea to start a Christmas tree farm swirling around and growing in my mind, heart, and soul for many years. 

The idea was planted on those shivering cold December mornings each year when my dad would wake us in the wee hours before the sun rose. We would put on our coveralls, coats, hats, and gloves and head out before daylight. I can’t recall the details of each time we set out to find that “perfect” Christmas tree, but my dad often tells the story of one of those mornings.

I was about 6 years old and I vaguely remember the slightly warmer temperatures starting to melt the snow on the ground, leaving behind a slushy snow covered field. My mom had gotten me a new white hat to wear to church for Christmas, but, I needed a hat to wear that morning for our yearly Christmas tree hunt. So, with the strict instructions to not get the hat dirty, it was placed on my head and we headed out the door. 

Still dark, I remember trecking through the snow, across the field, and through the wooded area on our way to hunt down that perfect tree. As the sun started to peek above the knobs my dad would hurry us so we could be back in time for breakfast. 

It was a treacherously long walk for my six-year-old legs and so my older brother carried me on his back. As he was crossing a creek with muddy banks, he slipped and fell, and I on his back, landed straight in the mud with my pristine white hat!

I don’t recall how my mother took the news, but we often giggle about that story and we often giggle about the looks of the Christmas trees that we would bring in year after a year. Some short and fat, some tall and skinny, some full of bag worms, some seeping with sap, but one of the best ones I can remember, was the one my dad had to to fill with vines in order for it to even look like a Christmas tree at all. It didn’t really matter the look of the tree, it was the fact that we went out and cut it down ourselves. It was the experience that made the Christmas Tree special and somehow those memories just stuck with me. 

Here I am 40+ years later, looking out upon our planted tree field and I am reminded of those early mornings as a child and the hope that soon we can bring a live tree tradition to other families. Building those childhood memories around the most wonderful time of year when Christ was born. 

When frustration, disappointment, & doubt of our hard work ever coming to fruit creep in, I am reminded of a few of my favorite bible verses. 

Commit to the lord whatever you do and He will establish your plans. ~Proverbs 16:3

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.” ~Jeremiah 29:11

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. ~Psalm 37:4

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ~ Ecclesiastes 3:11

With the certainty of God’s word, I am encouraged that in God’s rightful timing and righteousness, He will one day bring our tree farm to opening day. Until then we are out here working and tilling and planting. 

In everything you do, there will be floods and droughts that destroy. There will be difficulty and heartache, setbacks, and mistakes, but there will also be joy! 

Be still and know that I am God. ~ Psalm 46:10

Nothing is within our timing. It is God’s timing… in the meantime, Just Keep Planting!

💚Mandy Anderson