The Seed Catalog and the Surrendered Season

Every February, Helen Matsuda spread her seed catalogs across the kitchen table in her small Yakima Valley farmhouse and planned the spring. She had done it for thirty-seven years — charting rows, calculating frost dates, budgeting for fertilizer. She was meticulous. She was proud of it.

But the February after her husband Jim died, Helen sat at that same table and couldn't pick up a pencil. The sixty acres felt impossible alone. The debts were real. The catalog pages blurred through tears.

Her pastor had said something simple the Sunday before: "Commit your works to the Lord, and your plans will be established." She had heard Proverbs 16:3 a hundred times. That morning, it landed differently.

Helen closed the catalogs. She got on her knees right there on the linoleum and said, "Lord, I am giving You this farm. I don't know what to plant or whether to plant at all. But I am committing this season to You."

What followed was not a miracle harvest. It was something quieter. A neighbor offered to share equipment. Her daughter drove up from Portland on weekends. The county extension agent walked the fields with her for free. Helen planted half the acreage that year — and it was enough.

She will tell you the turning point was not a business decision. It was the morning she stopped gripping her plans and opened her hands. When we commit our works to the Almighty, He does not always change our circumstances. He establishes our steps — one surrendered row at a time.