Okay. Boxwoods have been replaced with loropetalum. Lantana and day lilies were added to beds on the front, side, and back. Perennnials are fed, stray weeds plucked, Preen applied, and all beds topped with mounds of long pine needles.

Welcome, sweet springtime! Welcome, balmy summer!

Just as there are various methods of planting and cultivating, there are specific ways that our Father seeks to shape you and me into the persons He intends; the highest version of ourselves there could ever be.

Isaiah wrote about this process. He understood that our Father is a skilled Architect, an expert Caretaker. He was able to grasp that His plan is wonderful and His wisdom is magnificent.

Isaiah 28:23-29 Listen and hear my voice;
 pay attention and hear what I say. When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?
 Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?

When he has leveled the surface,
 does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?
Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot,
 and spelt in its field?

His God instructs him
 and teaches him the right way.

Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,
 nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin;
caraway is beaten out with a rod,
 and cumin with a stick. Grain must be ground to make bread;
 so one does not go on threshing it forever.
The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it,
 but one does not use horses to grind grain.

All this also comes from the Lord Almighty,
 whose plan is wonderful,
 whose wisdom is magnificent.

The One who is managing the harvest of your life knows how to plant what needs to be harvested and the way to make it more fruitful. His plan for us is the same as that of the farmer or the gardener who studies the methods to prepare, sow, and tend. His goal is to make us the most fruitful we can be.

The Father is very careful with who you are becoming. He is a strategic Shepherd, and a Master Gardener.