But I Wanted Spaghetti Squash!

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.” Psalm 139:14 NLT

I’ve written about my garden in the past.

It’s a cathartic effort for me.

Even between the grudging work of pulling weeds and tilling the soil, there is something to be said about putting your hands into God’s earth. For me, my mind wonders, and often prayer-time comes in and has its deepest points right there in that little patch of real-estate.

Sure, I could buy tomatoes for a lot less than it costs to grow, but like the soil I dig into, the conflicts and prayers and quiet conversations go deep and meaningful.  I get lost in my alone time. You can’t put a price on that. The vegetables are just an added bonus.

So pardon me for yet another garden story…

I save seeds.

If I have a good “crop”, I take some seeds from that veggie then label them, seal them, and save them. It’s worked out pretty good so far.

Except for a hiccup this year.

Clearly, I was working with Spaghetti Squash seeds.

I love Spaghetti Squash!

A versatile vegetable I use for many dishes.

But…

This is what I ended up with a few months later.

Butternut Squash.

Don’t get me wrong, I like, like, like Butternut Squash; but I wanted Spaghetti Squash this year.

I needed Spaghetti Squash.

I set my hopes to have Spaghetti Squash.

I worked hard to get Spaghetti Squash.

…I didn’t get Spaghetti Squash.

Can I tell you, this whole seed mix up thing hit home to me.

I labeled, I planted, I waited, I watched, I toiled, I hoped…all for something that never, ever, ever could have become a Spaghetti Squash. Ever! What I started with was Butternut and what I finished with was Butternut–whether I knew it or not. All my wishing and hoping and waiting had no more influence on that little seed than the man in the moon.

Don’t we get there sometimes? I mean don’t we sit in the wanting and wishing and hoping we would turn out different than what we are? We want, therefore we hope, therefore we wait, and therefore we’re disappointed.

I, for one, have spent countless hours over my lifetime hoping to be someone else. Waiting to become, someone else. Toiling to be, someone else. Yet, I was never ever meant to be, someone else. Not a body like another, not a personality like another, not gifted like another, not able like another, not a life like another…it goes on.

Yet, I have to remember…

God didn’t label me wrong.

He didn’t label you wrong!

He knew the seed He set and the bounty that would spring forth.

May I remind us…you and I are God’s greatest creation!

Exactly the way He intended; exactly the way He planned.

Our bodies, our personalities, our gifts, our abilities, our strengths, our weaknesses…it is all what makes us, us. And it was all designed by Him.

When we come from a place of understanding that God doesn’t make mistakes, than we can put aside the futile efforts of wishing and hoping for something else we thought we should have been. When that happens, we become a more confident child of God. We become a more confident person in the world He made. We become a more confident follower of a Savior.

From one squash to another, may I encourage you to let go of the effort you spend hoping you would have turned out differently. It’s wasted energy. It’s useless thoughts. It’s actually a divider between you and Him. Put aside the wishing and hoping and instead celebrate what actually came forth…YOU—in all your glory, exactly as planned! And when those old useless thoughts pop up from time to time perhaps you can remember Spaghetti Squash works, but Butternut does too—it just depends on the recipe.