Plant Morning Glories, Get...Catnip?

 

Look at this healthy plant. Springing up in the exact same place I planted "Heavenly Blue" morning glories last year. Now, morning glories are an annual, but everyone assured me they reseed and spring up year after year, becoming nearly impossible to get rid of after a while. So far I've not found this to be true, so when the familiar heart-shaped leaves began poking out of the ground this spring, right where they should, I was pleased.

But.

Morning glories have smooth-edged heart-shaped leaves. These saw-toothed edges quickly got my suspicions up. A certain story of "tares among wheat" came to mind, despite that there's (again) no "wheat" for them to be among. Why? I asked Google. "Animal activity," said Google. "Seeds long dormant in the soil, sprouting under exactly right conditions," said Google. 

"Yes, but Google," I asked, "why in the exact spot? Why another plant that happens to have heart-shaped leaves?" 

Google does not know. 

What the plant apps do know is this is catnip. I also recall last year's abundant crop of rabbits eating some of the morning glories, so there's your animal activity in the exact spot. But as I gaze at this disturbingly healthy plant that I'm not sure I want and not sure I don't, I wonder what God might have to say. What's with the plant switcheroo, and what should I see here?

Maybe it's that seeds sown long ago, that haven't germinated yet, are not a lost cause. 

Maybe it's that our fallen but beautiful planet teems with life even in minutiae, and the human gardener is indeed only the caretaker.

Maybe it's that, though we reap what we sow, we sometimes reap good things we haven't sown. 

Maybe God gave it to me to help repel aphids from the nearby rosebushes. 

Maybe God wanted to gift me pollinators while repelling mosquitoes. 

Maybe God was giving me rabbit-repellant help, because it turns out rabbits don't like catnip. 

And God knows I love cats.

And catnip does come back every year. 

So I'm going to receive this catnip from the Lord. Apparently it will give me fragrant flowers, too, and the Lord knows I love fragrant flowers. I'm going to celebrate my whole garden this year, volunteer catnip and all. 

I'm going to consider that planting morning glories and getting catnip has some relationship to praying for one thing and getting another--"another" answer that in the long run, and maybe the short run, is better. 

Hey, I'll probably even go out and give the thing some water. Someone plants, someone waters, but God gives the increase.