There are those who think I am a bad cook (duh!)….well, I am a worse gardener! When my sons were young I planted a garden in Colvill. The tomatoes looked like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree and the carrots had to be dug out because they all turned “j” shaped in the clay soil. But the zucchinis! Oh the zucchinis!
I bought several packets of zucchini packets, planted them, watered them and they grew (and multiplied). I watched them grow, forming that familiar green shape of zucchini. But much to my dismay one of the zucchinis turned yellow with a bulging bottom. What? A yellow-bulging-bottomed zucchini?
That would never do! I went back and looked at the seed packages that dutifully clung to the sticks by the zucchini patch and they were all identical “Squash Zucchini.”
Well they continued to grow and it really became clear that something was very wrong. No matter what the labels said, one packet was not zucchini. It had to be mislabeled or the wrong seeds had been put in the right packaging. Still with the warmth of the sun and moisture of the rain, a little bit (very little bit) of weeding that “zucchini” grew into what it had been inside all along: the potential to become a yellow squash.
And a tasty squash it was. Not that I cooked it.
But now I am caused to wonder about that squash story. Who are we inside? Can we be happy about who we are with our own uniqueness, even if it is different from the others around us? We have been given our own identity that reflects who we are as children of God. How do we live that out? With love and nurturing (and a little bit of weeding) we can be all that God has created us to be and in that, do all that God would have us to do in this community and in the world.
Just pondering.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Pastor EvaLyn Carlson of the First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ.
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