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

What is Heaven Like? Matthew 13:24-43

He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. (Matthew' 13:37-39)

In the midst of winter I begin planning my flower garden.  The beautiful blossoms begin as tiny seeds, starting their life in my front window.  Just setting these fragile beings in the sunlight won’t make them produce fruit.  They require care and nourishment and pruning before the harvest.

In early spring I transfer these seedlings to the earth; preparation for harvest is already in the works.  Even though they will not be ready to cut and bring into the house for weeks yet, they are growing and getting stronger. “The time to harvest will come soon.” (Jeremiah 51:33) 

The scripture verses for today begs the question, “What is Heaven like?”  Jesus compares Heaven to harvest time.  Part of this growth process is clearing out the weeds.  “So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.” (Revelation 14:16)  By the time I select the best blooms to grace my table; they have undergone a maturing process, which made them strong and brilliant. 

The weeds that grew up alongside these treasures were plucked up without a second thought.  They never make it to be included in a centerpiece.  I love to think of my time on this earth as a time of growth and maturing.  I can’t wait to be a flower in the centerpiece at Jesus’ table.

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