“Can you go out and get some parsley?”

That’s what Nancy said. I was sitting at my desk trying to figure out where my writing for the next month is going. I had printed out the last couple week’s worth of posts. I was starting to leaf through the pages.  And she called down the steps.

I asked how much, said “sure” and went out through the garage to the garden.

Our garden is about 8 feet wide and about 30 feet long. Nancy has mixed perennials and annuals and flowers and vegetables, plants for us and plants for hummingbirds and butterflies. Most of it is ready for winter. Dead plants have been pulled, perennials cut off.

But the parsley is still deep green.

I had looked at it Saturday while cleaning up leaves. I was surprised at how healthy it still looked after a dry summer and fall. After being chewed on by 14 caterpillars at one point. After everything else is gone.  When she cleaned the garden, Nancy left the parsley alone.

I broke off the two stems Nancy wanted and took them to the kitchen. She was making chicken soup. She had cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot, had chopped the vegetables. She thanked me for the parsley and went back to work. Even as I’m writing, I hear her cleaning up the pots, washing the counter.

We will eat that soup on Monday evening.  On a cool evening, we will be warmer.

I think that sometimes, following Jesus is a lot like getting parsley. It isn’t a huge action. The heavy lifting is already being done. The planting and tending has been underway for a long time. All we have to do is listen to that voice asking for a simple act.

And get up and do it.