What's the Dill?

September is drawing to an end.  This morning at church in Sunday School we finished up our 13 week study of Jeremiah and Lamentations.  It was a heart-breaking study.  Jeremiah was called the "weeping prophet" because he told the people of Judah a sad story of judgment that was coming.  They had walked away from the one true Living God and were serving false gods.  The prophet pleaded with them, but they would not listen.  

God chastens those who He loves.  There was famine and pestilence across the land.  Jerusalem fell and the people were taken away in exile.  As bad as things had gotten, the study ended with hope, however, that God is a God who is faithful even when His people are not.  His mercies are new every morning.  We fall and miss the mark, but He calls us back.

We know nothing of the suffering like the people of Judah faced, but I'll tell ya, this summer has been trying, for sure.  Paul Harvey, in 1978 said, "Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to 6 inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains."  Except this summer it hasn't rained.  Today it was 106 degrees.  We will get through this, but the plants, animals and humans plead for rain.  We look back longingly to the spring.  Daily we ate crisp cucumber salad with blueberries and fresh dill.  So refreshing and healthy!  The dill has long since died, dried and gone to seed.

I gently pulled the seed heads off of the remnants of the dill flowers.  Some seeds had already shattered and will likely volunteer next spring in the herb garden.  

In the event they don't, I wanted to ensure that I had a good amount of dill seed to grow for next spring.

If the Good Lord wills, cooler days will once again come.  I'll save these seeds for the time when it is right for planting early next spring.  In the meantime, we'll continue to pray for rain.  It's time to be planting the fall garden, but it would be futile to plant anything right now.