My neighbor asked me to water her plants and feed her kitties while they are away for about 10 days. I asked Aspen if she wanted to go with me. She loves the kitties so she eagerly dropped what she was doing and put her shoes on to accompany me. We enter the house through the garage. Aspen loves to operate the garage door opener, so when we arrived she clicked and we entered while the kitties ran outside then back to be petted. We ran our hands over the heads and backs of the lonesome kitties, and poured more food into their dishes.
Finished with taking care of the kitties, Aspen helped me fill the watering cans to quench the thirst of the plants in the greenhouse. While I watered, Aspen spied her new favorite plant; the heart-shaped, lemon-flavored, wild edible plant. She eagerly ripped it up roots and all to take home so daddy could taste it.
As soon as we got home she jumped out of the car carrying her treasure and found my garden trowel. She looked around and excitedly dug a hole in the middle of the flower garden out front and deposited her new plant into it. She picked a heart-shaped leaf to take to daddy, who wasn’t quite so thrilled with the idea of eating a weed. But, Aspen insisted he try it. Finally, he caved to the pressure, put the little green heart in his mouth, chewed and swallowed.
I perceive the new plant in my garden as a weed. Aspen see’s it as her greatest new treasure that she picked, and dug the hole for herself. I think sometimes God tries to plant nutritious new plants in my life and I see them as sour tasting weeds. How about thinking kindly about the neighbors who play their music too loudly while I’m trying to sleep? What about speaking pleasantly to the store clerk who didn’t ring up your order correctly and now you have to wait on a manager to arrive and fix the problem? Most of the time in those situations what God wants me to do tastes sour to me and I’m not interested. No, I’d rather just plant my own flowers in my garden. The fun ones I enjoy, not sour tasting weeds that I’d rather not eat.
When I plant flowers in my garden, I take care them, spend time with them and help them to grow. If I didn’t see that they get the attention they need, they would either fail to thrive or die all together. The same holds true for the growth, or lack thereof, of spiritual attributes in my life. The plants I spend time with and take care of thrive, while those I ignore, just limp along or shrivel up and die. For example, I can choose to gossip about someone and grow that in my life, or I can choose not to. Choosing not to is of course the sour weed that I would rather not taste.
When I choose to allow the Master Gardener help me in my gardening choices, I will grow the spiritual plants that He has chosen for me. At first they may not appear very attractive and I’d rather avoid their sour taste, but when I love God and put Him first, all things will work together for good.
We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God-those whom He has called according to His plan. Romans 8:28 (God’s Word Translation)
