Horticulture and Hard Questions

I never understood how certain friends of mine could be so obsessed with their plants, particularly the multitude of cacti with which (or should I say with whom?) they share much of their living space.  However, one day at Walmart I began to understand.  

 Flowers were on sale that day, and I decided I want to plant some outside my apartment.  I bought pansies, violas, hyacinths, and seeds for columbines, forget-me-nots (Alaska state flower and my favorite), and green beans.

Ever since I brought my baby plants home, they have been constantly on my mind.  Throughout the day I check the weather and the moisture of their soil.  I move them to get more sun if it's cloudy in the morning, and I rush to bring them inside if it begins to snow.  I'm waiting patiently to plant my seeds.  Though I want to see the flowers, I would hate for them to be ruined by a snowstorm or bad frost. 
Every time I see a flower garden I stop and study it to discern the best way to arrange them.

I think I've decided on this

Except red is pink, orange is yellow, the blue dots are forget-me-nots, the back row is green beans and won't go off the paper in real life.  Not bad for a first timer flower gardener, eh?  No I shouldn't ask that, maybe it really is bad, I have no idea!  But I think I'll like it...back to the post!
When I look at my little plants, even when I look at the seeds, I see what they will be (hopefully) once they've been planted and have blossomed.  I plan to plant them so that the garden will be balanced.  I want the flowers that will bring out the color or shape of one another to be close together.  I want some in the middle, and some around the outside, some in front, some in the back.  

It all reminds me of the arrangement of Heavenly Father's children planted here on earth.  


We are all needed to make the Lord's carefully arranged garden beautiful, balanced, diverse, and complete.  When I think about where we are planted, I see...and when I can't see I trust, that there is a really good gardner.  Surely He took even more care arranging us than I have taken in arranging my little garden.

That makes me feel warm and fuzzy, but sometimes that belief seems irreconcilable with real life.  A precious friend of mine was born into circumstances I would never wish on anyone.  If I had to choose for her to be born where she was or as a starving child in Africa, I would have picked Africa, no question...but I would have been wrong.  As life unfolds I see that even when children are planted in difficult places because of the bad choices of others, what the Gospel of Christ offers them is miraculously, mercifully, eternally enough.  Because of where she comes from she has the potential to do good that will reach heights and depths that few have the capacity for.

"He (Christ) doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation."
 2 Nephi 26:24, Book of Mormon

I gave a women $100 in a parking lot once.  She hobbled up and pleaded for help so I gave her what I had.  I don't know if that was the right thing to do, but I do know one thing.  I have never forgotten her.  Imagine if you gave your life for someone, could you ever forget or neglect them?  Could you let them be planted in the wrong place?

"For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel." 
1 Nephi 21:15 Book of Mormon

I know God doesn't make mistakes, but can all the pain really be healed?  I've never encountered pain like my friend's before.  It makes a bad breakup or a death in the family, which I know can be very painful, seem like a pinprick.  
Each time I feel overcome with sorrow for the injustice my friend and others like her have suffered, I go to a few lines of a song about the Savior that I know she always listens to. 

He heals one by one, 
loves one by one.
When the crowded world around you
doesn't know your name, 
He knows us
One by one.

He notices it all, 
the sparrow when it falls, 
the sheep within His fold.
Every person's grief
was born upon His soul. 
One at a time He makes us
whole.

"One by One" Hilary Weeks

Yes.  The answer is Yes.  I believe it can all be healed.  We are His precious plants, His treasure.  We see ourselves as seedlings battered by a storm.  Heavenly Father sees us as we can become.  This inspires me

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