Joy Found in the Garden
The garden is one of my happy places. I just love spending time in my garden. Tending to my plants, watering my flowers, picking the cucumbers, pruning the tomatoes, cutting fresh flowers and even pulling the weeds refreshes my soul. Knowing that my family has grown these large beautiful and bountiful plants from a tiny seed is so rewarding. Feeding my family fresh, homegrown food right from our own garden is a beautiful thing. If you grow a garden, I’m sure you can relate.
The garden is a place that can be beautiful and chaotic all at the same time. Sometimes the weeds grow a little too tall, the zucchini might get a little too large and the abundant tomatoes might begin falling off the plant before you have time to pick them. But in this chaos — the imperfection, there is beauty.
Weeds in Life?
Isn’t the garden a good representation of our lives? Messy, chaotic, it might need a little pruning or weeding, sometimes a little ugly…and although all of these aspects of life seem imperfect and unwanted, they actually help us become better people.
There is nothing wrong with a few weeds. After all, weeds have a purpose in some form. Some weeds are used for medicinal purposes, some weeds can be eaten, some weeds actually help the soil and so on. But then there are also weeds that steal vital nutrients from your plants that must be weeded out. This is similar in our lives. We may need to go through our lives and weed out the harmful weeds — our sin. Our sin ultimately steals our joy and may even cause us to hide from the love of our Father in heaven.
The Importance of Pruning
I love the scripture John 15:2 which says, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit”. This scripture is so special because it is talking about how God helps us remove branches that do not bear fruit. When we prune our tomato plants, we are saving nutrients that would be wasted on unnecessary branches. This allows for more fruit — the good fruit. When we have our heavenly Father living inside of us, He helps us prune the unnecessary branches. The branches that may be wilting, stealing nutrients or even dying off. This way we can become the best versions of us. The beautiful person that you were created to be.
Be Thankful for God’s Beautiful Grace
When Jesus died on the cross for us, He took everything! Our sins, sickness, fear, anger, shame — anything and everything that keeps us from being who God created us to be. This alone should give us incredible joy! Once Jesus took our sins upon the cross, we were covered in grace. We do not have to live in fear that when we make mistakes God is going to smite us. You can think of it like this: God sees us through a new lens because of Jesus’ sacrifice. We are covered by the blood of Jesus.
This definitely does not mean we just disregard all of the advice that we are given in the Bible. And it certainly doesn’t mean we can sin without repercussions. The point is, we have to know that God loves us despite our mistakes. His grace covers our sins. We should no longer be full of shame when we make mistakes. We can simply ask for His forgiveness and turn away from our sins, once and for all.
Our Heavenly Father is So Good!
Although the weeds in our lives are ugly and unwanted, these weeds can be used to teach us something important. First of all, Your heavenly Father is so very good! I could write for hours about His goodness and all of the goodness He wants you to have in your life. He has so many blessings readily available for you. But we have to do our part. We have to choose remove the weeds, allow God to prune our branches, and seek Him. We can seek God by renewing our minds in His Word, praying, spending time with Him, and seeking out His purpose and will for our lives.
There is always joy to be found in the garden — even the messy garden of life.
Be blessed sweet friends!
