Gardening

 

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Genesis 2:8)

Yesterday was a good day. Many of the ladies from our church met for brunch and a quick Bible study before moving on to some landscaping projects. The topic of the Bible study was God... The Master Gardener.

God has used gardening in my life to show me so many things. Now I have to be honest... I really don't know much about gardening, and I'm not very good at it. But I do know a lot about sinning... and as much as I wish it wasn't true... I am good at that.

Our hearts are so much like the gardens we toil over in a myriad of ways. They usually start out filled with the thistles and thorns of sin, they are hardened from years of neglect, the look just like everything else... overgrown and out of control. Until the gardener begins to work.

When you begin a garden, the first thing you do, is start hacking away at the overgrowth... and God, as the Good Husbandman or the Master Gardener, does the same thing. He sends circumstances into our lives that break down the walls and fences we have built up to hide the neglect. This is an awakening of sorts - we start to realize that there is something buried underneath all that rubble, and that it needs some drastic done to survive.

That's when God really moves in. In our gardens, the next thing we would do is begin to break up and till the soil - sometimes with water, sometimes with shovels...but when we are really serious, we turn to the heavy equipment... rototillers! When we come to this point in our lives, God begins to move. In our feeble minds, we start searching for something. Anything that will help us out. We try self help groups (like the hose, they tend to turn on the waterworks and get everything a bit more muddy) and we try listening to the "experts" (like the shovel, they may be able to dig down a ways, but sooner or later they are bound to hit a hard spot.) and finally we give up... and we turn the God, who, like the rototiller, comes in and breaks up everything! And as God does this, we see our need for salvation, we see the roots of those darn thistle-y sins, and we see the possibility of a beautiful garden growing in God's tender care.

And when God is done tilling our hearts, breaking up the hard parts and removing the weeds of sin, we can step back and look at what once was a tangled, overgrown, out of control life and realize that there is hope.

And then, as in our own gardens, the time comes to plant. Jesus taught a parable about the sower and the seed. (Matthew 13:18-23) In the parable, Jesus compares the seed to the Word of God. After we get saved, we have to read the Bible to allow God to plant those seeds in our life. Again, God is the Master Gardener... He has a plan and a vision for our lives. And when those first tender seedling pop up, it is a glorious, beautiful sight!

There are certain things that He will plant - some early crops that can be harvested quickly, much like we do when we plant radishes and lettuce, and then when these have grown up, He harvests the fruit and moves on to planting something else a little more long lasting.

This part can be painful. When we are planting our own gardens, we harvest these first fruits and then we rework the ground and break up any new roots that have sprung up and any hard spots. After that, we amend the soil (you all know what has to be added to do that... right?) and then, after the soil is a little healthier and ready to be replanted, we lay out some more seeds.

Again, God does the same thing. He harvests the fruits, then breaks up our hardened hearts and shows us the roots of bitterness and sin that have sprung up. Then He ammends our hearts... and yes, he adds the same things to our lives that we add to the garden! After that, we are ready for a little bit deeper and stronger seeds (The Bible calls this the meat of the Word)

This process goes on and on as long as we have our gardens... and in like manner, it goes on and on as we continue to serve God. Gardening in a never ending job. Again, we turn to the Bible... this time for a favorite verse of mine...

Being confident of this very thing, 

that he which hath begun a good work in you 

will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:  

(Philippians 1:6)

Just as we continue working in our gardens, breaking up the hard ground, amending the soil and replanting... God continues to work in our lives. It is a growing process, a never ending process, a tough, backbreaking process, but it is a rewarding one... as is a life in Christ.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Are you overwhelmed yet? This became a much longer post that I intended, but I still have so much that God has taught me in the garden of my Christian life! And I'd like to share it with you! Check back for the next entry in the series...

When the Garden in Neglected