It’s Time To Plant Celery

It’s Time to Plant Celery

The time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself.

Revelation 19:7

If you want to start rumors in an Amish community about who’s going to be marrying in the fall, take a peek into an Amish garden. If it’s filled with sprouting stalks of celery, a fall wedding is a good possibility.

A wedding is a particularly joyous occasion, for two baptized members of the church are joining in marriage, continuing the faith, and starting a new family together. While parents do not select who their children will marry, approval must be given, and the deacon usually acts as the go-between. At a church service after fall communion, the couples planning to marry are “published,” announced in front of the congregation. But much preparation, mainly by the bride’s parents, has already begun, including the planting in early summer of several hundred stalks of celery, an important part of any Lancaster Amish wedding feast.

Why celery? Celery is used in the stuffing served with the fowl. It is also cut up and used as an appetizer. Jars of celery are set out on tables for decoration.

Celery sprouting in the garden is a sign of hope. It’s a sign of a young woman’s faith that she will soon have a home of her own and then a family. It means that she, above all others, is the chosen bride. And since there is no divorce in the Amish community, her dreams are focused on a forever commitment.

Christians have a forever Groom. His name is Jesus, and He has gone to prepare a place for us. The wedding to come isn’t simply wishful thinking. It’s as real as the chair we’re sitting on, and yet often we tend to focus only on today’s issues. We forget to plant spiritual celery! We forget to look forward with eagerness to the marriage feast to come. It’s wonderful to know that Christ is eager for that coming moment when He and his bride are reunited forever.

Dear heavenly Father, I cannot wait for the moment when I see the Bridegroom face-to-face. My heart is overwhelmed when I think of it. May each day find me more eager than the last.