The Gospel of Matthew and My Garden

Visitors surprising me in the garden often comment on the fact that I'm singing psalms as I weed, usually practicing the alto part of the psalms we go over for next Sunday's Mass during choir practice. I don't know if my plants enjoy it, but I tend to sing under my breath while I work anyway, so why not psalms? This weekend, however, my plants were treated not just to psalms but to portions of the Gospel according to Matthew.





 It happened like this. On Saturday morning, I was ankle deep in mud, sweating like a pig, and pulling up gigantic masses of matted weeds that had crept from the gravel driveway into the flower beds.  A car crunched down the driveway and out hopped my neighbor, Jo, and her friend Marie.  Jo is a Jehovah's Witness, otherwise known as a "Witness", and about once a month she and her friend Marie stop by to drop off Watchtower magazines, chat, and read the Bible. Now all of this is fine by me. It does make me laugh that Jo seems to assume that I know nothing of Witnesses, but back in New York, we were close with a couple who lived across the street who were Witnesses and I worked at Teachers College Columbia University with a very lovely woman who was a devout Witness, so I am very familiar with their teachings and don't mind their visits a bit. It also makes me laugh to see her face when I start discussing scripture with her. She once blurted out, "I didn't know that Catholics read the Bible!"  Turns out she assumed we sat like dummies in church and had people tell us what to do, sort of like animated robots.  I feel like her visits to my house are a cultural exchange and I am the ambassador for the local Catholics.  I  completely understand why she needs to stop by and discuss her views with me each month, and I welcome the opportunity to chat with her.  I like her and get where she's coming from, although I'm not sure she welcomes hearing my point of view!

Anyway, because I was so muddy and filthy I didn't want to go back into the house, but Jo said it was fine by her if I kept on working. So we hung out in the driveway and caught up on just life stuff before she introduced her Witness teachings.  She asked if she could read something from the Bible to me and I said sure. So while I worked, she read to me from the Gospel of Matthew.

She seemed enchanted by the flower garden and several times, I saw the joy in her eyes when clouds of butterflies rose up from the butterfly garden.  She would stop in mid-sentence and exclaim over them. So before she left,  I ran up to the house, grabbed a Butterfly Bush I'd potted up, and we swapped. She gave me copies of the Watchtower, and I gave her a purple Butterfly Bush, an offspring of the giants in the flower garden.

Now I wonder if my plants will grow SUPER big now that they've heard the gospel? Probably better than my singing the psalms....my singing my have stunted their growth...

So now my flowers have had the gospel read to them too.  I told you this was a blog about home and garden, faith, family and friends!