Dirty Life Lessons
Got your attention, didn’t I?
I’m talking about object lessons from gardening! HAHA!
Though I was plenty dirty at the end of my gardening time, I didn’t work as long as I intended. Falling stopped my progress, but I am determined and will finish another day.
In the meantime, there’s nothing like gardening to get this old lady thinking about life applications!
The first task was trying to remove an arched trellis and the stubborn, leftover vines. Mercy! But it’s really neat to think about how tightly each little strand of a living plant coiled its way around the support.
John 15:4-5 TLB Jesus said, ‘Take care to live in Me, and let Me live in you. For a branch can’t produce fruit when severed from the vine. Nor can you be fruitful apart from Me. Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from Me you can’t do a thing.’
I guarantee, if those vines were any more attached, I would have chucked the trellis. But it was neat for me to think about how even in death, those vines clung to the support system. Hebrews 6:19 TLB says, ‘This certain hope of being saved is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls, connecting us with God.’ May I, with God’s help, be as determined and firmly attached to God as those little vines were to the trellis.
The next step was raking out some of the dead leaves. Underneath the mess was a thriving community of grassy strands winding throughout the small plot. Those rascals! They have no business creeping into my garden! I yanked and pulled and threw the grass out onto the yard where they belonged! I only got about half way through, but giving up is not an option. Proverbs 24:3-34 TLB correctly described the situation. ‘I walked by the field of a certain lazy fellow (Yep! That’s me!) and saw it was overgrown with thorns: it was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down. Then, as I looked, I learned this lesson: A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest means that poverty (and weeds) will break in upon you suddenly like a robber and violently like a bandit.’ Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the thorny wild bushes that are determined to sprout everywhere down here – especially in good garden soil! Argh!
The last thing I did before I fell on my backside was to pull up some wild onions. They may be wild, but they are perfect for salads. No need in wasting them. They were clustered together with roots that held firmly as I tugged. They finally came up as I put my whole weight into the effort. And you guessed it. The motion of my body continued backward. I freed the onions from the earth, and I fell with a plop onto the brick stairs. Ouch! The worst part other than the residual pain is Ronald took my onions to the trash along with the messy leaves.
But the thought occurred to me. Even though we may be a small group of believers, if we band together we can frustrate anyone who tries to pull us apart from God or each other. Ecclesiastes 4:12 TLB – ‘One standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.’
So there you have it.
Blessings
Kara Beth
