What Grows in God's Garden?

My dog, Willa, and I took a walk this morning. With little or no green thumb of my 
own, I admire the late summer flowers growing  in other people's yards. One 
driveway in particular is lined with brilliant orange and yellow nasturtiums. We 
walked past several gardens too, full of tomatoes, squash, green beans, and rows 
of corn. 

God likes garden's too. (That's why He created them.) I recently read a short list of 
some of His favorite things to grow. 

Speaking to His people, Israel, God said, He will make her "wilderness like Eden 
and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in it, 
thanksgiving and the voice of melody" (Isaiah 51:3 italics added).

It's too easy to misplace joy and start thinking it comes from what I manage to 
accomplish. But joy grows from realizing what God has already done for us. Like 
eternal life, no small thing. 

We grow glad from a greater acquisition of joy through thankfulness. Yet we can 
get so used to listing the things we don't have that we neglect to thank God for all 
we have. For the chronically lack-minded rather than like-minded, joy evaporates.

I'm amazed how many verses remind us to thank God. Such a simple thing and yet 
we often forget. "Thank You, God for___________." We could fill the blank with a multitude of everyday or unusual things, all equally wonderful.

Last evening, just before I closed the curtains, I noticed the sky, soft blue, with 
streaks of pink clouds. It look like a pastel water color painted by a Master artist. 
So much beauty to thank God for. 

Everyday I want to wake up more thankful because that's where real joy and 
gladness grow. Not from more stuff but from more gratitude for the stuff we 
already have. And may we remember to thank God for the priceless treasures 
of love, grace, His Holy Spirit and the amazing people He put in our lives. 

Like me, you may not have a knack for growing great gardens. But we can all 
flourish like flowers in His garden just by making a habit of saying thank You.