This year, for the first time in several years, I have returned to my garden.
I carefully prepared the beds, dug & added soil, made sure all the conditions were right.
I selected good seed, and planted it as directed. I watered regularly, because here in the California drought region we don't get any rain after February.
And my plants sprang up - so lovely, so promising! The sweet little blossoms and the smooth, soft leaves brought a little leap of joy to my heart. It had been so long.
I nutured them, thinned them, gave them support for their wandering tendrils. The beds were filled with promise.
But, then something unexpected happened. It rained. It rained in April, and I happened to be on a five day trip out of town.
When I returned, I could hardly believe my eyes! In the five days after that unexpected shower, the weeds had sprung up almost to match the size of the plants I have been nurturing for six weeks! How had that happened, when I had worked so hard?
That evening, when I turned to my bedtime reading passage in Scripture, I had to laugh. Can you guess? Yes. It was Matthew 13.
I carefully prepared the beds, dug & added soil, made sure all the conditions were right.
I selected good seed, and planted it as directed. I watered regularly, because here in the California drought region we don't get any rain after February.
And my plants sprang up - so lovely, so promising! The sweet little blossoms and the smooth, soft leaves brought a little leap of joy to my heart. It had been so long.
I nutured them, thinned them, gave them support for their wandering tendrils. The beds were filled with promise.
But, then something unexpected happened. It rained. It rained in April, and I happened to be on a five day trip out of town.
When I returned, I could hardly believe my eyes! In the five days after that unexpected shower, the weeds had sprung up almost to match the size of the plants I have been nurturing for six weeks! How had that happened, when I had worked so hard?
That evening, when I turned to my bedtime reading passage in Scripture, I had to laugh. Can you guess? Yes. It was Matthew 13.
“Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” - Matt 13:3-9
Suddenly my little garden's plight seemed very, very clear to me. Why was I surprised to see weeds choking out my plantings, when I had been absent? Returning to a natural state happens with frightening speed.
In light of the parable of the soils...I think about my heart and realize that the same thing is true there, as well. If I leave my heart to its own doings for any length of time, if I fail to work it through with the deep working of the Word, weeds will certainly threaten the health of the good fruit. The "natural" state of our heart was revealed once before in a garden.
I'm weeding in my little garden today, setting it all to right once again. At the same time, I'm rejoicing that God's Word is available and ready to help us cultivate the soil of our hearts. Left to themselves our hearts - as Jeremiah tells us - are "deceitful and desperately wicked." Put under the tillage of the Master, however, we can grow more and more like Him.
Rejoicing in the anticipation of harvest -
Cara & Patti
Classic Christianity
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