This week I noticed one of our cherry trees wasn’t getting enough water. We use a drip system and the dripper had become buried under the dirt. After a bit of digging and mending, water is once again dripping. The cherry tree should perk up in no time.
I love our cherry trees. Love our yard. Love watching our barefoot boys chase dragonflies across the lawn. Love the sparkle of dew on the grass in the first light of dawn. Love the sound our sprinklers make in early evening when the swallows swoop low to snatch mosquitoes.
My love for our trees and lawn and flowers has grown as our yard has grown. Six years ago our lawn was but seed in the soil. The newly planted cherry and other trees too small to provide even shade, let alone fruit. No flowers yet bloomed on our land. No butterflies lived here. The hummingbirds came and went but didn’t stay. Now they stay.
In June, Cami and Drew’s wedding unfolded whimsically on these grounds. Our maple and redwood and oak trees proved tall enough to hold mason jar candles and fairy lights strung overhead for the reception. Lilies bloomed in abundance at lawn’s edge. Each summer more lilies spring up since Oma planted a handful of bulbs several years back in our planters. This year we had a cash crop of lilies blooming in perfect time for the wedding. Cash because it would have cost a small fortune to buy the lilies to decorate with.
It’s taken countless hours of work growing our yard since first drilling our well seven years ago on bare dirt. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth saying again. Beautiful yards don’t just happen. And neither do beautiful relationships. I’m not just talking about the love between a man and a woman. I’m talking about love between people. All kinds of relationships. All good relationships seem to have the same ingredients:
* Effort getting to know each other.
*Time spent together.
*Sacrificing things of the self to mesh into the relationship.
There’s this lie out there that love should just happen. That when a marriage or a relationship is right, everything is a walk in the park. Like the park is just there. Like love is just there. And when it’s not just there many people walk away in disillusionment.

But have you ever been to a park when the groundskeepers were there?
We’re talking sweat. Groundskeepers soak their shirts clean through so you and I have a nice walk in that park.
The truth is love doesn’t just happen. Love is something you grow. Effort, time, sacrifice all grow love. If you don’t have enough love in your life, grow more. Put in the effort. Put in the time. Put in the sacrifice. Look for drooping cherry trees in your relationships. Be sensitive to people. Notice when the ones you love need more water. More of your time. More of your effort. More of your sacrifice of self. And remember the secret ingredient because doesn’t every great recipe have a secret ingredient?
~ Prayer ~
Prayer accomplishes more in relationships than all your blood, sweat, and tears ever will. God can do more in a moment in a person’s heart than we can do in a lifetime. So pray!