plant gardens and eat their fruit

“Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.” - Jeremiah 29:5

As I imagine myself as an ancient Hebrew, who has found herself in exile in Babylon, I cycle through all the feels when I hear these words from Jeremiah.

  • Grief: To build something here, and to cultivate and eat the fruit of a garden here, means we won’t be going back there. This change is real. It’s for the long haul.

  • Confusion: If this change is for the long haul, then why are we building houses? Shouldn’t we be building a temple? Wouldn’t God want us to make finding a new place of worship a first priority? 

  • Fear: Is God even with us here? How can we trust after what we have been through? Even if God is here, if we work to establish something new, what if it fails too? After surviving the pain of losing our foundation, would we have the strength to handle another leveling?

  • Anger: But really, whether it’s houses or a temple, how can we be expected to build anything new after all we have lost? We are tired. You can shove it, Jeremiah.

  • Hope: But maybe this is how we find the strength to move forward? By starting over, but doing it all differently? How could things be different if we start with a garden?

I think I can imagine these feelings because I have felt them. I may have never been in exile, but I have walked through loss and know in my bones the struggles and roller coaster of grief. As is true for many, the journey of deconstruction has held several of those losses, including fractured relationships and uncertainty about what I even believe anymore.  

This summer, as Lisa and I evaluated what we are doing at 40 Orchards, and more importantly, why we are doing it, we kept coming back to this verse. The emotions feel right. These simple words of Jeremiah provide guidance for the reconstruction process.

You will be here awhile, don’t rush it. You can rebuild, but it won’t look the same. You can establish something in this place, but it will mean planting some new seeds and tending to them well.

As we look towards 2024-2025, we have let these words in Jeremiah guide us. They have shifted how we talk about what we do on our home page, they have helped us name more clearly what we want to plant with our programs, and they have directed the new name of our newsletter, Compost for the Garden. (Subscribe here). These are our seeds.

We are gardeners. Let’s do some planting, get our hands dirty, and find some new ways forward. Together.

💚 Steph

Stephanie Spencer