The best new undertaking of the year has been becoming an apprentice in a garden. The couple who invited me to join their already successful plot know what it takes, and are willing to show me. They did their homework, and planned out where to place each crop and when, and did the rototilling work last fall. I show up and get dirty.

For the first month I was excited to pick lettuce and radishes, and notice the amazing growth of the squash plants and bean bushes. The progress became even more pronounced when I went away for a week. The tomato branches needed to be gently lifted above the rungs of their cages, and there was the unending weeding. But I still thought harvest was a long ways away.  

Then a more experienced gardener drove by and looked over the fence. 

"Your potatoes are ready."

"Huh?"

"The flowers dried up and fell off. Go get a shovel." I got a small spade and tried digging. I held up the empty dirt clods.

"Deeper." 

I pushed farther into the soil, but still came up empty.

"Deeper." Still doubtful I dug eight inches down and felt three potatoes. I leaped up to show him. He already knew. 

"There's more." I rooted around and found four more red potatoes. Just like I buy in the store. My joy however has never been that pronounced in the produce section. I can see it now. 

"If you leave them alone they will get a little bigger but not much. They are sweet and full of nutrients." Then he drove off. 

Marriage takes a lot of prep work. Learning to listen, and not criticize, are as monotonous as weeding in June. But then one day God interrupts my drudgery.

"Dig." I poke around looking for something nourishing in this relationship.

"I got nothing."

"Dig deeper." Almost to prove God wrong, I look harder. Empty.

"Dig deeper." Then I hit pay dirt. Something incredibly sweet appears in my hands, along with the soil. I lift it up to show Him. 

He smiles. He already knew.