Elaine Ledgerwood
It all started with three little pots of strawberries...
Unpack the issues...
At the time I was trying to plant a vegie garden. I have a brown thumb but was working with the theory that if the garden was going to feed me I might be more motivated to help it survive. Well, the vegie garden has been a resounding failure. But the strawberries, they are a different story.
At the moment, my strawberries are a bit confused — they still think it is summer and they are strawberry-ing like crazy. In fact, with the winter rains thrown in, I have been getting massive strawberries these last few weeks. The only thing they have stopped dong is putting forth new shoots.
They do need a bit of attention — fertilising fortnightly, watering at least daily and cutting off any dead leaves so they do not become sick. And of course the most important bit is to pick the strawberries so they keep producing fruit. In return, I not only had plenty of fruit this summer but also stacks of baby plants, which means that next summer I will have even more (anyone want any strawberry plants going free?).
I now have around ten pots of varying sizes full of strawberries in varying stages of development.
A while ago I had to lead a worship service where I was feeling a little uninspired about the Bible readings. Fortunately, I had been asked to talk about my research on suffering and hope, rather than give a sermon, but I still had the children’s talk to do. It struck me that since the gospel reading was about Jesus being the vine (John 15:1-8) we could talk about what strawberry plants can teach us about God, ourselves and how we relate to other people.
The more you pick strawberries, the more they will fruit. It is really the humans tricking the plants into thinking that they have not fruited, but it works. It we leave the trickery out of it, it is a good way of remembering that if we do not use our fruits, then they do not grow. All of us have talents that can be used to benefit the world in which we live and we need to just get out there and use them.
However, strawberries will not fruit unless they are healthy and have all the right nutrients in the soil (as I found out the hard way). So we also need to remember that we cannot burn ourselves out by giving all the time if we are not being nurtured ourselves.
The other thing (as I mentioned) is the way new plants are formed.
A healthy plant will put out a shoot. A few leaves will sprout and if that shoot touches the ground, roots will form. In the meantime, the new plant is being fed and sustained by the old plant.
Sometimes we meet people like that; people who need a bit of nurturing for a while to find their own feet and others who need it longer term, who can produce fruit as long as they are connected to someone else. After all, we all need the support of others and none of us is ever truly independent from what is happening in the world.
I asked the children who they thought God (or the Divine, depending on how you want to take this) might be in the parable of the strawberry plants, expecting them to say that God was the gardener. But one of the older girls said God was like the pot — holding us in, containing us and all that we need for our growth.
Elaine Ledgerwood is an occupational therapist, theologian and amateur musician. Currently she is writing a PhD examining how we can talk about hope and God in a world of suffering. When she is not glued to her computer or buried under a pile of books in the garden, she can be found walking her dog, Maggie, preferably near water.
Unpack the issues...
- How well are you watered and fertilised?
- What extra sustenance do you need?
- If you were a strawberry plant, what kind of pot would you like to live in?
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