In the garden? You might think of the first frost as a “garden shutdown.”

Fact is, even in winter there is always something happening in the ground, in the air, and in the cells inside the plant roots and rhizomes. Plants never stop. They sleep or slow down, but never stop.

I found an iris rhizome this morning that had been forgotten in springtime, back when the blue iris were moved to a sunnier spot. The poor thing was on top of some hard clay soil, its roots piteously shriveled and dry.

I tenderly picked up the weary, wrinkled orphan. Upon further inspection, I saw a green pointy tip at one end, sign that life had not ceased throughout the long months of languishing in one of the driest parts of the garden. It could not find the moisture and grow like its brothers did, but it had not shut down its life systems.

All this week we have heard nothing on the news except how our government has been shut down because our elected officials cannot come to an agreement. It is not my purpose here to expound on what happened or why, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is happy about it, or at least not admitting that they are.

What if God simply shut down his beautiful world that he set in order in creation? That day will come (2 Peter 3:10). But no, that’s not what I want to talk about here.

I love how God allows the tiny seeds in my Amish Currant Tomato to hold life in their tiny speck of a germ until it is ready for a new season. I salvaged a few this week for seeds, although they were too far gone for eating. I love how that iris root will grow again…especially now that I tucked it into the soil properly, at last!

I love it how God’s promises of life in the garden is never “shut down,” nor is his love and care for us. Sometimes things can look as bleak and useless as that iris. Hope can be as tiny and insignificant as that tomato seed that got caught under my fingernail as I was cleaning the tiny seeds.

Nothing is too small for God, nor too far gone.

“A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out, until He leads justice to victory” (Matthew 12:20, NASB).

God is patient with us; he won’t quit waiting for us! Even if we are like a broken reed, a stem bent over by life’s troubles, but still hanging on.

Some of the news commentators made mention that shutting down certain areas will take more manpower than keeping them open! While we shake our heads or laugh at the ridiculous antics we are witnessing, we are comforted that God’s concern for us knows no expense.

No price is too high to keep his mercies and love available to us! He paid for our access to him with his own Son’s life!

Our heavenly Father is not capricious or vengeful as our politicians might be. Rather, he beckons to us to come back to him while there is still hope.

“And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come'” (Revelation 22:17a).

God won’t shut us down. He won’t shut salvation down as long as there is hope for us to accept it by our trusting and obeying him. Don’t shut him down!

–Christine Berglund @ www.forthright.net