If you are like me, you have been thinking about your gardens for about three months already. In the depths of the winter, when all is white outside, and you are beginning to crave green....the garden planning begins!
Mostly in our minds.
But that's alright. That is where all dreams begin. And of course, gardeners must be the biggest dreamers of all! Year after year, what begins with seeds turns into a beautiful garden to look at (flowers) or to eat (food), but a true accomplishment on you part at the cultivator.
Undoubtedly, the garden is also a yearly spiritual experience as well.
What begins as untamed, weedy, dry and grassy ground, can be molded into a healthy, green and growing bio-environment.
Like an uncultivated garden, our hearts can begin weedy and lacking in nutrients, but with daily, persistent and deliberate communion with God we can keep our hearts growing, becoming all it they were meant to be.
Go away on vacation, and come home to weeds attempting to take over your tomato bed.
Hide away from God for a week, and watch your heart grow full of invasive weeds. (Like my invasive Jerusalem Artichokes, see below)
It can show up in a few different ways depending on the person. You may be the type to become jealous, or have angry thoughts, to grow inpatient with your children or to fall into laziness or selfishness.
But, if you maintain your heart and work at it diligently, it can develop into healthy fertile soil, protected from the worries of our lives. A place which is potentially a home for future growth, as I hope the below strip in my garden will be for Butternut and Summer squash.
It's never too late to weed. Start today!
Matthew 13:18 -23
18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
