I love my little garden! I have ambitiously planted a variety of things this year. I have some corn, a few tomato plants, cucumbers, a variety of lettuce and squash. Gardening is a lot of work but it is also quite enjoyable. Gardeners take care in choosing the right soil, they till the soil, meticulously plant tiny seeds, gently pull away weeds (and let me tell you… the weeds never end!) and anxiously wait for little shoots to come through the dirt. It’s as fun for me as it is for my children to witness these little seedlings emerge and we watch in wonder as they grow into plants that produce our favorite vegetables! I believe God has a garden and we are the seeds he chooses to plant.
Recently, my husband posed this question in one of our devotional times… How do you feel you have grown in the last 6 months? Being completely honest, I said, “I don’t feel like I’ve grown; I feel like the seed dying in the ground!” Now this came from a place of frustration but also from a place of hope!
As a young mom, days can get long; house work piles up, children always need tending to, keeping up a busy church schedule is challenging and finding a quiet minute to pray seems impossible. I am in a phase of life where so many things around me are changing and with them I must change… I like things to be predictable but life is anything but predictable! I’m constantly faced with situations that force me to try to look at things differently … but I know this is good for me. I want God to make me in his image but the only way this can happen is if I will let him change me.
Sometimes we cling so tightly to the way things are; the plans that WE have for our life and what WE think we will become. But God’s word tells us that a seed first must be put in the ground and die before it bears fruit and it receives a changed image or body as it pleases… GOD. (1 Corinthians 15: 36-38) Life may get a little dark and depressing but the seed that is sown into this darkness has such a great hope! When it’s time in the dirt is over… and God chooses how long each seed takes to germinate, it emerges with a new body that will bring glory to its creator and bear fruit.
Paul challenged the New Testament church when he said, “I die daily”! Now, this may seem strange, but he wasn’t talking about a physical death. He was talking about a death to the things of the flesh; daily telling our physical man and our own way of thinking, NO! I’m going to do this God’s way today.
Continuing down, what seems like a slightly morbid path, Paul also tells the church (Romans 12:1-2) to present their bodies a living sacrifice! Again, he’s not talking about physically dying but living! People in bible times were very accustomed to ritual sacrifices and all the bloody mess involved. So, when Paul spoke of a LIVING sacrifice, they were challenged to become more than a lifeless creature that would be useless after it’s death! God doesn’t intend for us to stay in the ground and simply die, but the life after that death is what he desires!
Paul continued by saying, do not conformed to this world! But let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Don’t lose hope in your times of darkness! Let God transform you into who HE wants you to be.
The Great Gardener has a plan and he is waiting with anticipation, after he covers the seed, for the first little sign of life to pop from the ground! He is filled with joy when He sees his precious seedlings growing to maturity and I know he can’t wait to see the harvest!
The Blessed Mess