From the Garden

Blessed be the name of the Lord. All this beautiful, slow rain has made my garden so happy. Unfortunately, the weeds have just been waiting for such an opportunity. After months of not pulling weeds because they were too small to bother with, the rain left me with the sudden need to do some major cleanup work.

I have two types of soil in my yard. First is the beautiful, dark, loamy soil that was brought in by a landscaper a year before we came. This gorgeous stuff is in the bed next to the house. It is loose and light. The second type of soil is solid clay. I have never seen clay like this. You can shape it and make pots from it. It is solid. When it dries, it turns into rock.

While I was pulling weeds I noticed some interesting things. In the loose soil the weeds were lush. They were tall and wide and were fighting with the good plants for room in the bed. They popped up quickly, but because of the soil they were in, they were a snap to pull out. The loose soil let them go easily and it was almost fun to yank them out watching large hunks of soil rip from the ground.

On the other side of the house is the clay. I almost didn't start working that bed because the weeds were still small. I decided that I would take just a few moments to yank those out. I thought it wouldn't take long because the weeds were not all that big. Boy, was I mistaken. Those plants were held firmly deep in the clay. They weren't as big because they were having to work harder to push their roots deep into the hard clay, but that also made them almost impossible to rip completely out. Most of them left all their roots behind to grow another day.

It reminded me of life. Some people have light and easy lives. They grow bigger than life and everything seems breezy and blessed. There hardly seems to be a cloud in their sky. Some people have hard and heavy lives. They seem to struggle and meet resistance at every turn. Nothing is handed to them, and they live smaller and tougher.

On the surface the easy lives seem enchanted. They are often regarded with jealousy, but God promises that life here on earth is going to be tough. No one escapes earth without some tough times. When those times come people who have had easy lives often are uprooted easily. They are blown away by the least amount of struggle.

On the other hand, those whose lives have developed slowly and with struggle have been made strong by the trials. They have pushed their roots deep into the Rock and can not easily be moved.

All this to say with an apostle that worked through some tough stuff, this is light and momentary troubles that produce a good we can not begin to fathom.

Dig your roots in deep, push through the hard times and bury yourself in the Rock!