Fruit and Results

Gardening is an art, just ask someone who does not have a green thumb.  While it may be an art, it is also a learned craft and one that takes a lot of work, dedication and loving care.  You might see a neighbor leaning over a flower bed and wonder why his yard produces such beautiful blooms while yours looks too pitiful to point to.  What is the difference?  Could be lots of things, but a couple of the more obvious ones would be water and sunshine and pruning.

Water and sunshine are no brainers, but pruning?  Isn't that cutting some of the plant off and throwing it away?  Ouch, that sounds harsh.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. (John 15:2)  

Flowers are meant for us to enjoy, to look at and feel blessed with a colorful treat for the eye.  Ask a gardener what his secret to his successful crop is and he might tell you that  we will thin out the bed by plucking up any shoots that do not look promising; those that are not growing and taking the shape they should.

The scripture of the Vine and the Branches is about the Master Gardener, Jesus, and how He wants to teach us how to bear fruit, how to be the best we can be.  We must be close to Him.  

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

John 15:1-12

How does your garden grow?

One of the things I look forward to doing once the long winter months are behind me is gardening. To get outdoors in the spring, into the warm sunshine and play around in the dirt, is a most fulfilling experience. I will spend February pouring over gardening magazines, dreaming about everything I am going to do once I can get outside.

Gardens are peaceful and refreshing. It isn't so much the growing food, although I love a homegrown tomato, but the feeling of being close to nature. The year I spent all alone in the North woods of WI will forever be part of the sweet memories I take with me into my future.

Genesis 3:17 (NIV)
To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 

Gardens also bring with it a negative faction, weeds. Weeds have a way of creeping into your flower beds and if not monitored will overtake them, strangling the beauty. It is necessary to stay on top of these things.

There are many life lessons in the act of gardening. If it weren't for the sin of Adam and Eve, there would be no weeds.  Weeds are like sin, they make a perfect scenario flawed and defective. They turn a pristine landscape into a ravaged. What once was meant as a Heavenly home for Adam and Eve was turned into a land where work and pain and tears resided and death made an appearance.

Just like winter comes to an end and springs surfaces to bring new life and warmth, so too will sin come to an end. Jesus made all the difference. The weeds of sin and destruction have met their match and one day the garden will once again be free from unwanted vegetation.  Until then, we must stay on top of things and keep close to God. Pull any sinful weeds from our lives and plant goodness and love in their place.

Genesis 3:13-24