This morning, I completed one of my critical fall tasks. I call it “taking down the garden,” and it entails a lot of cutting down plants, pulling up weeds, finding the last salvageable cucumber of the season, and grabbing as many of the red tomatoes as possible to throw over the fence for the neighbor’s chickens and ducks. (Don’t give them green ones, the internet says they are bad for them.)

As I worked, I first thought about how the Lord had blessed us with a great harvest this year. Our cherry and peach trees were abundant, and the herbs and veggies were plentiful —everything was exceptionally tasty this year. We had such a bumper crop that we kept our family and friends well-stocked and were able to sneak about 25 boxes of fresh food into the Little Neighborhood Free Pantry as well.

It was a good line of thought, and I am so thankful for God’s generosity. It dawned on me that I was not sad to be performing the Autumn ritual of “taking down the garden,” and this led me down a different path to think about how generosity is part of God’s nature, as are seasons.

I thought about the creation, and how God worked and created for 6 days, but on the 7th day, He rested. (Gen 2: 2-3) The Lord realized this would be beneficial for us and made the 7th day specifically so we could rest, recharge, and then get back to work.

My garden is the same. It worked hard all spring and summer —the fruit trees blossomed, housed birds, produced fantastic fruit, attracted bees and squirrels, dug their roots deeper, and performed the vital function of photosynthesis for months and months. They deserve a dormant cycle to rest so they can continue the cycle next spring and summer.

The plants in the garden cannot be expected to produce through the cold months, and if they did, I suspect the veggies would not be very good. I’m not interested in tramping through the snow to try and harvest tomato-sicles! We will get to see in the spring which plants sent out “volunteers” to produce again, and which will need to be replanted, and that is part of the fun.

Ecclesiastes 3 is fairly famous for its description of the seasons and cycles of life. After the verses describing the time to be born, the time to die, the time to plant, the time to sew, and the rest, there is this line:

“I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil- this is God’s gift to man” (Ecc 3:12-13 ESV). God wants us to take pleasure in productivity—and in resting.

I’m not so good at relaxing, and neither is my husband. We stay busy too much of the time, and for me, every time I take a break, I start thinking about the other things I need or want to get done. I wonder if we are missing out on God’s design for productivity by not taking more seasons of dormancy and rest to recharge? It’s something I am going to contemplate and pray about.