Healing the Land: Growing Some Good Dirt

What you put in your soil is what you will get out of it.
 

Yesterday, as I was tending (that's my new word for garden work) the garden, it occurred to me that as long as people have been growing food they have been working to control and manipulate nature, almost, and most certainly in modern times, to the point of trying to recreate God's design to suit their own needs.

If you think about it, that explains a whole lot. Pride, arrogance and greed have corrupted our home. This is the home that God created to sustain itself and us. If we hadn't messed it up so much, the world would be a far better place to live. Who is man, that he thinks he can improve upon God's design?

Gardening is big business, and there are companies out there making a fortune pushing those 'must have' products that you can't garden without. The poisons that poison our soil. The poisons that are supposed to grow healthier, bigger crops. The poisons that are ruining the natural balance that keeps nature going. The poisons that are poisoning us. The poisons that have to keep getting stronger every year because last year's version isn't strong enough anymore. These are the poisons that are stripping our soil of life and it's ability to sustain life.

What you put in your soil is what you are going to get out of it.

Even if all you do is grow grass for your kids and dogs to play on, it is still true. Whatever you put out there is going in them and you. Even more so if you are growing food.

If this concerns you, good! Because what you do in your own yard and gardens affects your family and neighbors, your community and ultimately the entire earth.

Part of God's design, and perhaps because He knew we were going to mess things up so badly, is that the earth has the ability to heal itself. If we let it. And never underestimate the power of God to help it along.

Be a part of healing the land. The first thing we need to do is stop trying to fix what we've done with more chemicals and poison. Just stop using them. Get back to letting nature do it's thing. Of course, we can and should help it along with the addition of piles of natural mulch. When we put a covering on our soil, life begins to happen. Microbial life will reestablish itself; the worms will come. The worms are perhaps the most important, because they actually clean the soil and help rid it of toxins without leaving them behind in the castings.

We are caretakers of the land. What we do and don't do really does make a difference.

Yes, we can be a part of the healing of our land.

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV