Walking the greenbelt behind my house yesterday I encountered a neighbor picking weeds to fill a vase. This unmown area offered plenty to choose from, and there was no weed-picking competition out there. We’re talking weeds you’d pull up or spray to remove from your yard. She later admitted disappointment with the results once she had them on display inside. Apparently she had no garden with attractive flowers, so she was foraging. Made me want to go pick some real flowers from my yard, put them in a vase, and give them to her! (I put that idea aside, knowing her husband might misinterpret my gesture!)
I imagine God, the Master Gardener, watching many of His children arranging unsightly weeds in their lives, put on display for others every day. Nobody’s coming to smell their “flowers.” There’s neither scent nor beauty there to attract people, but they’re not thinking about that. They might buy a nice vase, but they’re haphazardly displaying whatever’s growing in the garden of their lives, most of which they never planted with intentionality. The weed seeds just blew into their lawn, or sprouted from bird poop, or maybe were inherited with the house they bought.
Figuratively, just like our greenbelt, the world around us abounds with weeds flowering and going to seed. Those nefarious seeds regularly drift into our lives on the winds of social media and entertainment, things we listen to, see, or read. As they they take root and sprout, we find ourselves thinking and acting just like the world without even trying. Sometimes weed-seed-bearing bird poop falls in our space—events or people bringing opportunity for offense, ugliness, negativity, and strife. Then there are the inherited weeds—unhealthy mindsets, habits, coping mechanisms, and behaviors we may have seen modeled that took root in us as we were growing up. None of these make for an attractive garden.
Meanwhile God’s wondering, “Why are you settling for weeds? I have an entire nursery of beautiful things for you to cultivate in your lives!” God and those who sow His truth in grace are constantly trying to plant and water good seeds in us. When You read His Word correctly, you even sow seeds of truth into yourself, and all of these ways are important. But you have to be alert to weeds that would choke out what’s good. Some weeds literally wrap around and strangle the life out of attractive and beneficial plants, and a mindset of the flesh (an unrenewed mind) will do the same in our lives.
The Bible talks about this a lot. Proverbs 4:23 puts it plainly:
Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.
Everything in your life —your thoughts, words, and actions, and the fruit they produce—arises from your heart. We decide what we let in and what we plant. Our hour-by-hour, day-by-day, decisions will determine our ultimate level of fruitfulness for the kingdom. Whatever we choose to sow, we reap (Galatians 6:7).
Ask God what weeds He sees in your life that need to be uprooted. Pride? Fear? Self-centeredness? Unbelief? What is He inviting you to plant and water instead? Write those down, ask for His help, and then start re-landscaping your garden.
Thank you, JB – quite apropos, given the time of year. If only our yard / gardens could be given “the living water” offered to the woman at the well. 🙂