I live in south central Pennsylvania near Amish country.

As a single mom and near invalid, I could not afford thousands of dollars to remove the dead sod and reseed my yard. Instead, I followed God’s quiet whisper in my heart. Friends and neighbors helped me remove dead sod, rototill, and rake the soil to create my backyard garden. An unemployed neighbor dug the hole for a small pond and laid the rock. Others tucked in the transplanted perennials from my aunt’s and friends’ gardens. Over time, what was once my dead lawn became a beautiful sanctuary. As I watched this transformation of my backyard, the seeds of hope took root in my heart.

Today, Mourning Glory Gardens remains a living memorial of what God can do with the destruction in our lives. He takes every loss that hurts or makes us angry and turns it into something beautiful. But it usually doesn’t happen overnight.