Throughout the gospels, Jesus shows us and tells us that God loves and gives and forgives, then loves and gives and forgives some more. Overflowing, overabundant – that’s how God loves and gives and forgives. And God loves to surprise us.
Last season, I didn’t harvest one single zucchini. I had lots of pretty yellow zucchini flowers but for some mysterious reason, no fruit. A prudent gardener would have put in more of the things that succeeded (chard!) instead of the zucchini that didn’t, but it’s my garden, so I planted more zucchini seeds this season.
What happened? Our generous God of surprises is surprising me with a bumper crop of zucchinis! There are already a dozen medium-sized zucchinis ready to pick, and the flowers just keep on coming. All I did was plant some seeds! It’s the miracle of the zucchinis!
Women of the church do this all the time. All anyone has to do is plant a seed – describe a need – and the women of this church get to work on bringing forth an overflowing harvest.
What other needs can the women of this church fill to overflowing? Maybe that’ll be the next zucchini miracle.
This message is excerpted from “The miracle of the zucchini” by Audrey Novak Riley from the July 27, 2017, blog of the Women of the ELCA.
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