I am having mixed success with the small garden I planted. One tomato plant died, but the other one is thriving and almost as tall as I am. One squash plant was a dud, but the other is on the brink of taking over the entire garden. My big frustration is the bugs and caterpillars eating the baby squash and tomatoes. Though if I can find the offenders, my child is more than happy to smash them to smithereens.
A few weeks ago, after the caterpillars had eaten 3 of 5 tomatoes, Hosea and I prayed over the remaining 2. Immediately after saying “Amen,” I regretted it and thought, “That was stupid! Caterpillars eating tomatoes are just part of life! What if God doesn’t intervene and protect the tomatoes – how will I explain that to a 3-yr.-old and still assure him that God answers prayer?”
I should back up and explain that we were on a prayer roll. A few weeks before, we were doing an errand and had just pulled in the parking lot when it started pouring rain. We needed to be outside for this errand, so I sat in the car thinking out loud, “What should we do? We don’t have an umbrella. Maybe we should go do our shopping at Target first and then come back.” Decisive Hosea declared, “We just go Target first.” I almost turned the key in the ignition, then I stopped. “No, let’s pray. Dear God, please make the rain stop. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” Then we waited. 20 seconds later: “Mama, we go Target!” “No Hosea, we’re waiting for God to answer and stop the rain.” Within a minute, the rain suddenly… stopped. We got out and did our errand. (Now when I told my husband about this he said, “So what if you would have gotten a little wet, what’s the big deal?” My rain phobia is besides the point of the story, okay?! The point was that God answered a prayer in a way that Hosea could plainly see and understand!)
A week or two later was Hosea’s birthday. The weather had continued to be gloomy, cold, and even a little wet. The funny thing was that we had scheduled his birthday party at 5pm because that was the only time of day that there would be shade in the backyard. It’s common to have some overcast weather here in May/June, variably called “May Gray,” “June Gloom,” or, in my family, “Birthday Weather.” But it’s not usually downright cold and it never actually rains, and the clouds generally burn off by noon and then the sun comes out. As the cold, gloomy weather continued for a week, then another week, I began to get worried about it being too cold to be outside for Hosea’s birthday party. So, we prayed with Hosea. “Lord, please send the sun for Hosea’s birthday party.” The day of the party was gloomy again all day. But it wasn’t too cold, and around 5:30pm, the sun broke through between the clouds and shone down right on our backyard – and seemingly nowhere else. It came and went a few times over the next hour, and it was still mostly cloudy, but it was the only sun we had seen in weeks and it dramatically lit up the wall in the backyard that we had decorated with chalk drawings and a “Happy Birthday Hosea”. We excitedly pointed out to Hosea, “Look, God sent the sun! Remember when we prayed for sun for your party?”
Now back to the caterpillars. I know through experience that God often does not take away little annoyances or even big problems no matter how hard I pray, for a variety of reasons. Hosea’s too young to understand those reasons, but he’s not too young to know God. I kind of think that if it had been just me praying alone for those tomatoes, God would not intervene, but use it as an object lesson to remind me that I live in a fallen world and that I am called to be vigilant on a daily basis against sin and evil as it tries to eat up everything in its path. But it’s not just me; it’s Hosea. And the lesson he needs to learn right now is that God hears prayer and answers. God loves Hosea, and is merciful. So the baby squash have been eaten by rolly-polly bugs and the caterpillars have been chomping on the lettuce, but ever since we prayed for the tomatoes they have not been touched.
Facing Jordan 