Friday, July 22, 2011

Removing the weeds in love...

I find great fulfillment in pulling weeds....I know that sounds crazy, but I actually like the process, chore, job of going outside and spending some time yanking the little green monsters out of the ground.  It is quite satisfying to stop them from taking over and choking out my little tomato garden.  

Yesterday I was spending some quality time weeding while Joanna napped and I began thinking about God and me and weeds.  I began to think how God is the master gardener of my little life.  As sins crop up in my life, which they do daily, he comes in and helps me weed them out.   He would gladly pull them out by the root, ridding me of each specific sin permanently, but sometimes, unlike my tomato garden, I fight the gardener himself.  I hold on to the sin by the roots.  I won't let it go, and then I am left with that sin or weed that has only been scalped but not completely uprooted and soon, with time, it grows back.  I began to consider how frustrated God must get with me, with my sins, the weeds that grow back continually, then I had an epiphany.  I am never mad at my garden for having weeds.  I have never once thought, "Garden, how can you grow weeds, what is wrong with you?"  In fact, I know the weeds will come.  I expect the weeds to show up all summer long, and I find satisfaction in daily tackling the chore of weeding: removing the bad in an effort to allow the fruitful plants to flourish and provide my family with delicious tomatoes.

Life lesson learned while gardening:  I enjoy maintaining and caring for my garden.  God enjoys maintaining and caring for me.  While I do not like that weeds grow in my garden, I still love my garden in spite of the weeds.  While God detests the sins that grow in my life, he still loves me in spite of my sins and continually helps me rid my life of them. 

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

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