Do not plant fake flowers

I know little about the family who lived in our house before us.  The husband died and his widow was moved to an assisted living facility.  From little clues left around the house I know she was a quilter and a seamstress.  She was a gardener and planted hundreds of vines and bulbs around the property.  That was one of the selling points for me- her flowers were beautiful.

When we moved in, the yard was fiercely overgrown.  The bulbs had multiplied and needed pulled or divided.  The vines were taking over the trellis and wooden supports.  Trees were growing in the flowerbeds, weeds spawning throughout the blossoms. 

The plants just needed a little love. 
The lady who lived here obviously loved her flowers.

So it was a surprise to find these fake and lifeless plastic flowers buried among the bulbs. 
I wonder if age and arthritis prevented her hands from digging in the soil so she planted plastic blossoms to color the beds.  Why would she plant fake flowers?  I wonder.

I tend to think that fake flowers will last longer than the real thing.  They are colorful and brilliant and will remain so throughout the frost and snow.  Their green leaves never wilt, the heat never withers them. 

Never? 
And yet, look at them now.

I have no idea how long they were in the garden but their beauty has faded.  They could never stand against the fresh colors of the real red rose and violet clematis.  Their stems are brown, their silk petals decaying.

I am also a gardener.  I water my flowers every morning.  I love watching the fruit, flowers, and vegetables swell on the stalk.  I feel the Lord's pleasure in the garden.  And yet, I know that someday I will pass away and weeds will overgrow my gardens.  Someone may move into this house who has no love for the flowers. 

But they will grow.  The bulbs will remain still under the winter soil and resurrect each spring.  They will multiply and divide and reach toward the sun.  And someday someone may look at them and see the Lord's pleasure in the garden.  They will not be made of plastic and silk- sun faded, old, and deteriorating. 

I will plant what is lasting in my garden. 

until soon,
b.