It was a bad day for the weeds as I, the occasional gardener, plucked them one by one from the soil. I think I heard one of them scream, “Aaawwrr! Captain, I’ve been pulled!”
“Don’t worry, Nettles,” came the reply. “He’s missed your roots. You’ll grow back.”
I know the captain is right. The weeds will come back, but today I have the satisfaction of a good pull and a garden in which the flowers are freed from the tyranny of their enemies. I will sit back and enjoy the beauty before strategizing about my next campaign.
In Jesus’ Parable of the Soils, he tells of four types of soil: hard path, rocky, weedy, and fruitful. About the weedy soil, he says, “Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and chocked it, and it yielded no grain.” (Mark 4:7) When asked to explain this, Jesus added, “They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18-19)
As I work in my garden, I can visualize the weeds choking out what is most important in my life. My spirit is strangled. God’s voice is silenced. I fall easily into a pattern of accepting the weeds. I know that weeding my flower beds is something I will need to do regularly if I want a beautiful garden, and pulling the weeds from my life is a necessity if I want to bear spiritual fruit.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)