I went outside this evening to put some plants into my large white pots.  While I was outside I saw all the weeds growing in the flower bed.  I immediately became inspired to pull the weeds.  I envisioned a beautiful weed free flower bed.  I stopped potting up the flowers and moved on to pulling weeds.  It hasn’t rained in a little while so the ground was hard and the weeds just broke off at soil level.  Since I am an experienced weed puller I know that the weeds will usually come up root and all if it has rained and the soil is wet.  And since I had also read the weather forecast I know that it is supposed to rain tonight and therefore pulling weeds tomorrow will be more productive.  I reluctantly walked away from the weeds and went back to putting pretty flower combinations into the white cement pots.  As a side note these white pots seem to be indestructible.  Brett discovered this when one of them rolled out of the back of his Subaru Baja while transporting them to the new house yesterday.  So today when he wanted to remove two of the pots from the back of the Subaru, rather than lifting them gently and risk the possibility of hurting his back, he just dropped them out of the back.  They bounced a couple of times, then he stood them upright, put them on the dolly and rolled them to their destination.

I can think of several spiritual applications to this illustration.  First of all just like the weeds  that come up easier after the rainfall, the sin in our lives is more easily removed after the Holy Spirit rains down his power on us convicting us of how awful our sins really are.  Once we have been convicted it is so much easier to let go of the weeds in our lives.  If we haven’t been convicted then we would much rather hold onto our sin because we enjoy it.

The second application applies to how easily I got off track of what I had gone outside to do.  Sin usually derails us like that.  It attracts us and off we go on our little adventure.  But, when we realize that our adventure isn’t such a great thing, and we know that because we have read the Bible, then it’s a good idea to get back on track.

The final spiritual application I can think of is the indestructible white pots.  Wouldn’t it be great if we bounced and rolled like that when hard times came our way?  Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.  But, we can be eternally grateful that Jesus bounced and rolled during all the hard times in His life here on earth and didn’t once crack or break.  Because He lived a perfect life and then died for us, we have the opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to convict us and then help get back on track.  God can give us the strength to bounce and roll with the punches.  God loves you, He wants you to live in heaven with Him some day!

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  John 14:2,3