Afterthoughts from Idaho

Last Sunday, we had our report day for Idaho. This is a time of sharing with supporters and others interested in the organization, Create Common Good. We presented a slideshow on Bhutanese refugees and highlighted one of the men we met in Idaho, defined "refugees," then all shared special moments or afterthoughts. Lastly, we served the food that we prepared the night before -- food we had learned to make after harvesting and what we ate in Idaho.

Here is what I shared that impacted me the most during/after the trip:

One of the activities I enjoyed most was harvesting the vegetables that would go toward crop sales and preparing food for the harvest festival. 

When you stepped into the garden, there were so many types of plants with herbs and vegetables—each beautiful in its own way, each containing a different purpose or unique flavor to enhance a dish. One had to look through and choose carefully because some weren’t mature enough yet to be picked. It was fun to watch the vegetables/herbs come straight from the garden and then watch them go through the process of being cleaned, having the invaluable parts cut away, shaped, and then transformed into a masterpiece along with other ingredients. 

As I sat back and watched, I thought “this must be how God feels as he looks upon his garden of people (all types and at all stages, each with his or her own uniqueness).” We all know Matthew 9:37 where Jesus says “The harvest is plenty but the workers are few.” I looked at the “harvest” a little differently. I knew that like people, some needed a little more time to grow and just be “loved on” before being “picked or uprooted”. The gardener, like God with his careful and all-knowing eye, knows which ones are ready to be yielded, which ones need some painful clipping or pruning to clear the bad parts, which ones just needed to be in the soil a few more days with extra sunlight, and which ones may need to be uprooted and transplanted elsewhere in order to reach their full growth potential.

This made me look at my own life and spiritual growth process after seeing this tangible representation. It also reminded to give grace to others that are at a different place in their growth process. While it’s hard to go through the pruning and waiting, I was able to see how beautiful and delicious the end result is and how proud our Father, our gardener, must be as he stands aside and sees his handiwork.

A verse that came to mind as I was organizing my thoughts was this from James 1:21:

In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life. 

Here are a few of the dishes we prepared:


penne with homemade arugula pesto

farfalle with homemade arugula pesto and sausage

fresh tomatoes and cucumbers