Sweet Manna

They are fragrant, exquisite colours – but when I cut all the sweet peas to bring in the other day, I came in with about a dozen.

A dozen. 

I have seen other peoples’ gardens. I have seen wire fences thick with sweet peas climbing to the skies, blooming their heads off. 

Someone said that sweet peas are voracious feeders. They need good manure and compost dug in before being planted. Although I throw a bucket of the dissolving plant food onto the ground there every couple of weeks, it obviously just isn’t enough. 

We’ve been so busy with lovely folk staying for B&B, people from France, Germany and the Netherlands. We enjoy their company, hearing their stories, getting to know their customs. But it all takes time. Folks on holiday are relaxed and linger, eager to chat and be advised on sights to see in the area. We enjoy that, but it plays havoc with my daily routine.

I find that quiet times in my Bible and just in listening to God are often lost in the bustle of the morning. I get to lunchtime and feel like these sweet peas. The blooms are few and far between.

I am a voracious feeder – or I like to be. When I feed on the Bible, when I linger in prayer, when I ponder things, I am content. I am at peace and able to give more, able to bloom better. 

There is some compost dug into my life, past times of prayer and study on which I can draw. But I need today’s word to me to make fresh fruit in my life.

Makes me think of the Israelites in the desert. God provided manna on the ground every morning to sustain them, and gave them strict instructions only to collect enough for that day. It wouldn’t store but would go mouldy and wormy by the second day, except on the day before the Sabbath when they could collect a double portion so as to have a rest on one day a week.

I need my daily manna. And I also need to remember that about taking a day a week off... but that’s another story.