The Gardener

The last few months I’ve been learning to garden and generally keep things alive. I’m telling y’all - this has not always been a thing in my life. My grandfather (and generations before him) had farms and my mother and grandmother always had plants and beautiful yards. I could kill anything. I do mean anything. I once killed a succulent. But since my grandfather passed last September, plants have brought me a lot of comfort. They remind me of him and they teach me so much about Jesus. I like to think that maybe Jesus allowed me to start learning how to garden for those reasons.

Today, I was working on cleaning out my flower boxes so that I could plant some herbs (lavender, sweet basil and rosemary for the curious ones) and as I was working I felt like the Lord was explaining some things to me. You see, I’m 27 and single. Most days, that’s pretty much fine. I’m very independent and enjoy making my own schedule. But sometimes, I struggle. I ask questions like, “Lord, I feel like I am being faithful to all you ask of me here… so why? Why is the desire of my heart not fulfilled in this area of my life?” I’m pretty stubborn, so sometimes Jesus has to use object lessons with me.

If you’ve never gardened or planted flowers before, there’s a couple of key points to remember:

1. You have to clean out the dirt to make sure the old roots and weeds are gone.

2. You have to use fertilizer and water regularly (varies by plant, but everything needs water ya know…)

I was pulling roots out of this flower box and pretty much covering myself in dirt. I came to a really difficult root that I couldn’t pull out no matter how hard I tried. I dug to the bottom of the box and realized that the root had grown so deep it would have to be cut out to keep it from re-growing. I grabbed some shears and cut it as close to the base as I could. The root was huge - it had several offshoots that spanned the entirety of the box. I had to till all of the dirt to be sure that I got all of it. Jesus does the same thing in our lives. We let sin patterns, thought patterns and people integrate themselves into our hearts, minds and spirits. They burrow in so deeply that we just begin to believe them: “I’m born this way. I can’t change. This is who I am, no matter what Jesus says about me.” Even when we get saved, there are some things we hold back from God.

He is truly the master gardener. He wants to pull these things out while they are still small - it’s so much easier! But if we choose to regularly avoid sitting in His presence, having devotion and prayer time, and learning to be more like Christ it is easy for things to take root in our hearts. I realize that seems simple, but it’s true. By the time we realize we need to let the Lord have control of this area, it requires a great deal of work on His part to pull the root out. And let me tell you - it’s painful. Refining, shearing and ripping out embedded sin feels like misery, so much so that we blame Satan for the good work the Lord is trying to do in us. We cry and ask why He pulled that person, job or thing away from us - maybe He’s trying to clear the roots of sin out of our lives. Maybe we’ve waited too long, and what would have been an easy separation now results in devastation. Make a decision now to let the Lord have his way in your heart. Let Him do the work of clearing roots while they are small. Trust that He knows that He is doing when the tilling process seems too much to bear.

If you think that pulling the root out is all the work, think again. Once the dirt is cleaned out, you have to fertilize it. It needs help to grow healthy things once again. So many times in our Christian walk, we hear this phrase: “Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship!” Yes. That’s true. However, I think that we use that as an excuse to avoid what we consider “ritualistic behaviors.” I need to reframe your thought pattern on that. What you may consider dull rituals are practices that you are already implementing in your healthy relationships every day. You check in with friends, right? Follow their lives religiously on social media. Gas them up in the comments. You make sure that you have regular FaceTime or coffee dates. Okay… so if you didn’t do that regularly, would you still consider them a close friend? Y’all, I N E E D Jesus to be in my business. I need Him to know what’s going on in my life. I need to read His words, because my life does not even make sense most of the time. I need the Holy Spirit to be my peace speaker and my constant friend. I can tell when I have not spent enough time with Him in study, in prayer, and quiet time. I know that sounds dramatic, but you can tell when your relationships have changed, right? When you develop your relationship with Christ, He truly becomes your friend, your rock, your source. Create a regular, habitual practice of prayer, worship and Bible study. You need that in your life. You need more Jesus than the hour and a half you get on Sunday. Is Jesus your life or is He confined to your regularly scheduled time slot?

Let Jesus continue in the good work that He started in you. Trust that He knows what He is doing. And just a bit of personal, non-spiritual advice - get some plants. They’ll teach you some things about Jesus.