Seeds and Weeds

I had to rip out and re-do my largest garden bed this year. Twice. 

 I have spent the last few seasons sparsely planting, but with classes ending early this year I went a little nuts on the seeds yet again.  I pay my biggest boys in cold hard cash to till the soil each year. They upheld their end of the bargain, but I waited too long and before any seeds were underground, all that fresh soil was smothered in weeds.

I tilled the soil again myself, and thoroughly planted a whole mess of hope-filled seeds! 

 When the starts came up, the weeds came up too, and in my gardenless years I had forgotten the distinguishing details of my hoped-for plants. I couldn't pull the weeds around those fresh little starts because I couldn't tell the difference between the good seed and the bad. 

I almost over-spiritualized and let the ground lay fallow, but boy- lazy, hands-off gardening does not need to be followed by an unsanctioned, empty fallow! I left the garden to grow a little, hoping that as the plants matured I would recognize them. Turns out a bent is hard to unbend, and I left those seeds and soil alone too long again. Before any plant had matured to recognition, they were all choked and tangled in weeds. 

Goodness sakes, if that isn't like the garden in our hearts... how often I let things lie a little too long inside ME, hoping more time will help me sort it out on my own!

I had to start over. I had to pull it all out, stir it all up to empty, open ground again. 

This time, I laid a protective barrier over that fresh soil to prevent anything from inviting it's self in. This time I planted seeds in my window sill so I could watch them grow and KNOW what was breaking through the soil. This time I could study those little starts so that next time I plant in open ground I KNOW what the good seed looks like.

Friends, we must tend our soil and know our seeds. We must know what is growing in our hearts, and if it's all tangled and the unfruitful is choking out the good seed, we must lay it all down and work with our God and stir that soil until it is fresh and open for good seed again. And if we no longer recognize what is pushing up through the surface, we must go to the source, the unchanging word of God, and study TRUTH until we can see what is good seed and what is bad. 

Gardening, both inside and out in the dirt, requires faithful tending. Both are so rewarding, so life-giving, so back to where it all began between us and our Almighty. Happy planting, friends!