This spring, my husband, daughter, and I, spent hours installing mulch in our garden beds. We worked in the blazing heat, my husband pushing wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of mulch to various locations around our property while my daughter and I spread it over the dirt and around the plants.
To do this job properly, the garden beds must first be weeded otherwise you’re simply covering over the problem and those infuriating imposter plants will poke through the mulch. Even with prepped beds and mulch, the garden needs consistent care otherwise the pesky weeds will begin to take over.
In my garden, it’s not just the weeds. It’s my wisteria. For a period, I ignored it. It swallowed the back fence and devoured a post in the laneway. It even sent hungry shoots throughout my garden bed. As a result, I’m constantly having to cut it back to try to prevent it from completely taking over though it could be argued it already has!
The same is true in our lives. It takes diligence to not let weeds take over the soil of our lives. We don’t cover over the weeds and pretend they’re not there—eventually they will poke out of the surface. If the unlovely or wild things don’t get dug up or pruned, they will eventually crowd out the lovely.
Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:1-2)
As it is in my garden, this pruning seems to be a constant activity in my life. Weed-like things I would have ignored, covered over, or allowed to grow wild need to be removed. But God, the Master Gardener, partners with me walking through the garden and showing me what needs to go. Sometimes, he points out things that are overgrown and we work to remove them side by side. Other times he just goes ahead and yanks them out before they choke out the good.
Some of the things he pulls out or chops off don’t appear all that important. Surely there must be worse things needing attention. But in his wisdom, he knows which to tackle first. Like the wisteria that started as a small vine but now runs the risk of taking over, the same applies in my life.
During these times, I need to remember that God knows what needs to come out and when. He also knows what is to be nurtured to create beauty for things to flourish in my life, and I must trust the uprooting or painful, pruning process. But there’s something else.
Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
We not only trust the process, but we also remain in him. When we abide, we bear spiritual fruit and such things such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self control spring up in the garden our of lives. Whatever is lovely will have room to properly take root and beauty will grow in our lives without being crowded out by the lesser things.
And as for the mulch, it’s like a blanket of God’s care placed over the top to help all the work that has been done to remain.
I bless you that you would remain in Christ and grow in beauty.
Reflection: Where do you see growth and beauty in your life?