Tilling hard packed soil

I can hardly wait for May when I will be back in my gardens enjoying beautiful flowers! There is quite a bit of preparation needed before seedlings and young plants go in the ground. The soil must be tilled up a bit and nutrients added to the soil.  Not much grows well in hard packed soil.

Many of us have been programmed since early childhood to believe certain things about certain groups of people.  I for one was raised in a padded Ziplock bag with climate control! I didn’t see a person of color until I went with Youth Group to visit a church in Akron. All of my life I had heard my grandparents make very disparaging comments about African Americans. In the last few years of her long life, my parents had to care for my grandmother at their home as she violently refused to have any person of color take care of her. That is some hard packed soil!

In my Ziplock bag during high school, I had no awareness of anything other than heterosexual people. I had heard derogatory names being used such as queer and faggot, but I never gave any thought to what they meant. I did have compassion for the recipients of the name calling just as I had compassion for anyone being picked upon.

In Nursing School there were a couple of men in my class. I had overheard some female classmates remark that they must be homosexuals.  It must have been hard for those men to choose a female dominated career. My first year out of Nursing School, I was working on the Postpartum floor at Akron City Hospital. One of my patients just happened to be my beloved high school softball coach. I had not seen her since graduation so I looked forward to catching up. I was taken aback when she asked me, “Are you a lesbian like all of your friends on the softball team?” She began to list the names of the infield - 1st base, 2nd base, shortstop.  (I played 3rd base and short center) These were my good friends that I had spent a lot of time with on and off the field. I had not been in touch with any of them since the summer after high school. There was quite a relief on my coach’s face when I told her that I was not a lesbian. Off to other patients I went, but my mind continued to try to make sense of the conversation.

Two of my softball girlfriends were sisters. I spent the night at their house on many occasions, and had first hand knowledge of their strict and often abusive parents. Did my friends become lesbians because of the abuse they suffered? Did they feel safer with women than with men? I eventually packed all of these thoughts away and went back to my Ziplock bag - that is until softball and lesbians became oddly connected by news media which then made my parents wonder if one of their granddaughters was a lesbian because she played softball throughout college and never married. Maybe those lesbians on the team converted her? That is some hard packed soil! Thank God for grace!

We likely all have some hard packed soil at one time or another in our lives. Maybe you have already spent a lot of time tilling your garden and are growing beautiful flowers. I think our hearts and souls need a regular tilling to be the people that God calls us to be.  Spend some time thinking about your hard packed soils and how you have tilled your soil and grown. And maybe even share with family and friends or here in the comments! Tomorrow we will look at the history of the PCUSA and the LGBTQIA+ Community.