Today I did some weeding in my sister's garden. Last week my mom and sister spent over 5 hours weeding. Sunday afternoon my sister and I spent over an hour weeding. Today I spent about an hour weeding. It is a HUGE garden! My sister got the green thumb. I like living in a condo on the 9th floor with no grass to mow or garden space!
As I was weeding today, God taught me a couple of things. I was working on the carrot row today. The carrots are not very big yet and are very fragile, kind of like our lives. But, there were a variety of weeds growing alongside and right in the middle of the weeds. As I looked at the weeds and tried to decide where to start, I decided to start with the biggest ones first.
It made me think that God does a similar thing in our lives. When He looks at us as we first come to Him, He sees a lot of weeds that need to be pulled, sins that need to be worked out and new character to be developed. It can't all be eliminated at once, worked through at once. So, God gets down on His knees and begins to gently pull out the weeds.
Even as I gently pulled the weeds, I was not always successful at not disturbing the carrots. God is gentle in weeding the garden of our lives, but sometimes it feels like He is being pretty rough. When it feels like He is being rough I need to remember that God is lovingly helping me get some space to grow. He is preparing the soil for me to flourish.
As I got ready to go inside for breakfast I noticed my hands. They were completely covered in mud. Pulling weeds is messy. It is not a job to do just after a manicure and in your nice clothes. When God works on my life, He is right here in the midst of the mess with me, getting His hands dirty as He pulls the weeds and helps me sort through the mess.
God has dirty hands and I love Him all the more for it!
Here are a few pics of my sister's gardens to enjoy...
4 comments:
Good analogy. Beautiful pictures.
Well first of all, I'm jealous of their garden space! It's so great they can grow so much of their own produce and, I'm sure, share it with neighbors!
Thank you for this reminder of God's work in us. He's so faithful to continue refining our hearts and directing our lives towards his likeness - even when we protest. It's amazing how we come to appreciate the weeds as nice companions in life and seem miffed that God has uprooted them. Perhaps that lends to a need to grow along side others who are lovingly planted and cared for by the same gardener?
Thanks for you words Shan, I can't wait to see you! Three weeks!
Great thoughts! I think gardening has wonderful spiritual analogies. I spent a lot of time weeding this week too. We try to get the kids to help because they need some responsibility. They complain most of the time but yesterday they were singing VBS songs. Hope you are having a good home assignment!
I have thought of weeding too spiritually...like the little weeds that have no roots, but those that are really rooted down and can really never be pulled up...I want to be rooted deep!
Post a Comment