In the Garden

There have been many sermons preached using the metaphor of weeds in your garden that speak to spiritual health. Let me tell you about my garden. The words in the hymn In the Garden are true for God placed these words on my heart just this morning while in the garden with him.

Gardening is a passion of mine and healthy green grass surrounding it is icing on the cake. Matter of fact, fresh cut grass is my all time favorite smell in the world. I continue to use a phrase my dad used when people compliment my garden, "Thanks, it was grown by me & God". Because I live in Central America my gardening passion is affected by the fact that we have two seasons - WET & DRY.

During wet season everything grows leaps & bounds. Its when I do all my planting, transplanting and reseeding from flowers I harvested the previous year. Yes, even in the rain. It's God's water from heaven, glorious life giving rain, so dance in it! At the peak of rainy season it does get challenging finding a window to cut the grass, but what is a challenge other than an opportunity to stretch your ability to find solutions. Wet season for me is during fall & winter in North America

Dry season on the other hand is a tough time of year. The ground actually cracks from lack of moisture, the grass turns brown and many of the flowers I grow just do not survive in that kind of heat. I have to resort to using city water, which has a high content of lime & chlorine so I only use it to keep the fruit trees and my roses alive. Even my cactus plants start to shrivel up, that's how hot it gets.

Now back to the weeds.There is a weed that grows in my grass, that seems to grow best during dry season and it is very invasive. The branches that grow from the main stem are like a Christmas tree, broad at the bottom, tapering at the top where it grows seeds. If left alone it will spread & choke out any healthy grass. It has to be removed by pulling it up being sure to get the roots. I was traveling one year and when I returned it was everywhere. By the time I got a handle on removing it, there were 6 foot by 8 foot sections of bare dirt. It took some time for the healthy grass to spread in to fill those sections.

In our spiritual lives, God yearns to bless us with all that is good in life: growth, prosperity, joy, love & happiness (like rainy season). Be ever so grateful and try to maintain a reservoir of gladness. It doesn't mean we won't experience tragedy, hard times, challenging times like dry season and the invasive weeds that come with it. Weeds that start small, spread and grow, like resentment, despair, & hopelessness. Rid yourself of those weeds and be sure to get the roots for left unattended will destroy even the goodness you sow. Pray for rain and then, ........... learn to dance.