God's Sense of Humor

I've adopted this flower bed at church. Originally a mess of some kind of creeping mass of weeds, Butch and I dug all that out. We then covered the ground with a layer of newspapers, and put mulch over all that. Joan Layman, a member, donated enough plants to fill the back seat of my garden, all of them dug from her home gardens, and we planted those as well. It's now starting to fill out and beginning to look like a garden again.
Years ago my sister told me that God was not the task master I imagined. She also said he wasn't out to get me, looking for any excuse to "beat me into submission". Instead she said that God is the perfect parent, the kind of parent we all wanted to be.
I've thought of that often, especially as my children grew up and learned new things. I remember chuckling at my daughters' and granddaughters' first efforts at standing and walking. They'd take a few steps, wobble, fall over and try again. And eating? What a mess! I'd put a table cloth under the high chair just to contain some of the mess. But I didn't scold. They were doing the best they could. And I often found myself giggling as they learned to use their hands and feet.
And so I imagine God laughing and giggling at my recent church gardening efforts. I found a mess of bulbs buried under the dirt. Not knowing at all what they were nor how tall they'd get, I put them where I thought they'd soften the look of the sage, Japanese mulberry and pine shrub. But look! They turned out to be lillies, and some popped up and then bloomed right in the midst of the sage. In my mind I can just hear God chuckle. I can almost feel his hand on my shoulder as he says, "Oh honey! Look what you did with my bulbs. See how I've made the plants grow, and most of it looks great. Now as far as these lillies in the sage. . .well, that's okay, too. We'll just plant them somewhere else once they're done blooming. You're learning. And I so love you."