The thing about gardening is that you’re always preparing for the future.
These salvias, dahlias and cyclamen are still in flower because we planted them…We’re enjoying potatoes, beans and carrots from ‘off the estate’ because in the spring I prepared and planted.
And now we’re starting to prepare for next year – pruning shrubs, digging in compost, clearing the greenhouse… Yesterday my friend Tim told me that now’s the time to split my rhubarb!
Yesterday we learnt that Professors Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing the technology that led to the mRNA Covid vaccines.
The Nobel committee said: ‘The laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.’
Preparing for the future… with technology that was experimental before the pandemic, given to millions of people around the world to protect them against Covid-19, and is now being researched for other diseases, including cancer.
Over the weekend we saw a bunch of photographs of granddaughter-Hannah at university in Canterbury… socialising with new friends, enjoying new experiences, going to places she’s not been before… doubtless the edited version of her life that she’s prepared to share with her family and the wider world!
Her past – friends, family, school, college, church… has prepared her to be the person she is today. Her life and experiences now, the choices she makes, are preparing her for whatever lies ahead…
This morning I was reading Romans: ‘…we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.’
Today was my future in the past. All of my life-experiences including – perhaps especially – the tough ones that have left scars, have given me my character and prepared me for today.
My faith reassures me that I live my life with a loving God who’s formed my character, through my past, is with me today, and gives me hope as I, with Him, prepare for my unknown future.
malcolmsmusings.org 