Tend Your Garden

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled 10 to Your Garden was written by Karen Pimpo. I was so excited to plant our backyard fruit and veggie garden. Then I started to notice small holes in the dirt. Before it had time to ripen, our first fruit mysteriously disappeared. One day I was dismayed to find our largest strawberry plant had been completely uprooted by a nesting rabbit and scorched to a crisp by the sun.

I wish I'd paid closer attention to the warning signs. The beautiful poem in Song of Songs records a conversation between a young man and woman. While calling to his darling, the man sternly warned against animals who would tear apart the lover's garden, a metaphor for their relationship. Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, he said. Perhaps he saw hints of foxes that could ruin their romance, like jealousy, anger, deceit, or apathy. Because he delighted in the beauty of his bride, he wouldn't tolerate the presence of anything unwholesome. She was as precious as a lily among thorns to him. He was willing to put in the work to guard their relationship. Some of God's most precious gifts to us are family and friends. Although those relationships aren't always easy to maintain, with patience, care, and protection from the little foxes, we trust that God will grow beautiful fruit.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Song of Songs chapter 2 verses 8 through 17. Listen, my beloved. Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice. My beloved spoke and said to me, Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.

See? The winter has passed. The rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth. The season of singing has come. The cooing of doves is heard in our land.

The fig tree forms its early fruit. The blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for the gift of family and friends, and most of all for being a part of your family.

Help us to guard our relationships against anything that could tear them apart. Thank you for loving us so well, and help us to love others well, too. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Toni Collyer, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.