I love to garden...Its something that makes me thrive...to run warm ,fresh dirt between my fingers, to see tiny green shoots shooting up in the bright dewy morning...the smell of fresh plowed earth....I love it all.
Well this spring when everything was coming up and blooming,I saw I had a new vine.It was growing up out of a barrel ,climbing my archway.It was lushes and green.I had planted different plants the year before so I thought this must have come back from one of those.It was strangly familiar but yet I couldn't quite put my finger on it.I plant lots of different flowers, so I wasn't to concerned, beside it was very healthy ,green and climbing vigorously...I put up support for the green shiny leaves,trained it so it would climb just right around a hanging lamp, so it would show its best self...and waited on the blooms...envisioning all the beautiful colors....I waited ,waited and w.a.i.t.e.d...It climbed and I watered..it spread and I watered...it moved to the tree above and I still waited....no blooms......Well one night after church we got home and I was heading up the walk way and glanced back at my beautiful vine in the light of the pole lamp...the dim light....yet so revealing....I suddenly saw its true identity....IT WAS POISON IVY!!!...YES...me a seasoned gardener had trained poison ivy to climb up my archway and even encouraged and nourised it to spread....HOW HAD I NOT SEEN BEFORE!!???....Why in the dim light of the pole light which was so dim and not in the glaring light of the day??? I had even handled it without gloves and yet never reacted...Well I couldn't even sleep that night.I kept waiting for the sunlight of the next morning to confirm my suspicions......Yep at first light ...it was true....So I decided it had to come out and NOW....so I grabbed it and pulled...and pulled and PULLED!!...believe me that thing had a hold and was NOT moving....BUT I was determined and nearly pulled my whole planter up pulling that root out....It wasn't one root by now but 3 tublers and they were about 2 ft. long....they had been multiplying under the ground as I so diligently fed and cared for them...YUCK!!!
Well as I thought about this alot over the last few days...I wondered if God had a lesson in this.
How often do we nurture sin in our life...bitterness,resentment,jealously and ect.Wondering why we arn't bearing fruit.How often we justify ourselves or gossip thinking its just concern for others that we need to talk about. ...I know there are times in my life that these things have been revealed in the most unexpected ways...(in the pole light so to say)..thru a friends,thru studying Gods Word and even thru my children questioning my attitude.We carefully nurture bitterness in our lives...thinking oh I have forgiven that,,,but then something happens and it raises up again....the roots getting bigger and stronger, sending out new shoots of self-pity,resentment.....But Praise the Lord if we let God's truth shine on it.. into every area of my life...He WILL be faithful and reveal every weed, the things that are choking out my life...sometimes it hurts and shakes things loose in my life to allow God to pull those roots out...But its worth it....then and only then can I bloom and bear fruit.......John 15:1-2,4
Well this spring when everything was coming up and blooming,I saw I had a new vine.It was growing up out of a barrel ,climbing my archway.It was lushes and green.I had planted different plants the year before so I thought this must have come back from one of those.It was strangly familiar but yet I couldn't quite put my finger on it.I plant lots of different flowers, so I wasn't to concerned, beside it was very healthy ,green and climbing vigorously...I put up support for the green shiny leaves,trained it so it would climb just right around a hanging lamp, so it would show its best self...and waited on the blooms...envisioning all the beautiful colors....I waited ,waited and w.a.i.t.e.d...It climbed and I watered..it spread and I watered...it moved to the tree above and I still waited....no blooms......Well one night after church we got home and I was heading up the walk way and glanced back at my beautiful vine in the light of the pole lamp...the dim light....yet so revealing....I suddenly saw its true identity....IT WAS POISON IVY!!!...YES...me a seasoned gardener had trained poison ivy to climb up my archway and even encouraged and nourised it to spread....HOW HAD I NOT SEEN BEFORE!!???....Why in the dim light of the pole light which was so dim and not in the glaring light of the day??? I had even handled it without gloves and yet never reacted...Well I couldn't even sleep that night.I kept waiting for the sunlight of the next morning to confirm my suspicions......Yep at first light ...it was true....So I decided it had to come out and NOW....so I grabbed it and pulled...and pulled and PULLED!!...believe me that thing had a hold and was NOT moving....BUT I was determined and nearly pulled my whole planter up pulling that root out....It wasn't one root by now but 3 tublers and they were about 2 ft. long....they had been multiplying under the ground as I so diligently fed and cared for them...YUCK!!!
Well as I thought about this alot over the last few days...I wondered if God had a lesson in this.
How often do we nurture sin in our life...bitterness,resentment,jealously and ect.Wondering why we arn't bearing fruit.How often we justify ourselves or gossip thinking its just concern for others that we need to talk about. ...I know there are times in my life that these things have been revealed in the most unexpected ways...(in the pole light so to say)..thru a friends,thru studying Gods Word and even thru my children questioning my attitude.We carefully nurture bitterness in our lives...thinking oh I have forgiven that,,,but then something happens and it raises up again....the roots getting bigger and stronger, sending out new shoots of self-pity,resentment.....But Praise the Lord if we let God's truth shine on it.. into every area of my life...He WILL be faithful and reveal every weed, the things that are choking out my life...sometimes it hurts and shakes things loose in my life to allow God to pull those roots out...But its worth it....then and only then can I bloom and bear fruit.......John 15:1-2,4
Beautiful! :)
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