Life in a Glass Jar.

It seemed like it would be forever when we planted them:

pruning, watching for worms, fertilizing.

Sometimes, when things take time, prayer, work with no instant rewards,

you start to feel like giving up,

 like there will never be rewards that amount to anything.

Some things just don't tell you what they will become someday,

that they actually are progressing in the quiet days and passing seasons as you work patiently at them.

Sometimes I feel that way about my children, when the moments seem long and hard and there is so much we see that still needs work; 

sometimes I feel that way with housework,

sometimes with striving toward personal goals that seem impossible and so far away to reach.

 The daily plod dims the joy of the finish line;

but it is there,...

it really is,

if we do not quit.

 It is funny to think that a simple treasure,

 steeped in the lessons of life: struggle, work, prayer, patience and then joy...

can be tucked away for winter in a little glass jar.