Reason #75
Tonight I had to do some yard work. To be honest, yard work is my least favorite homeowner responsibility. I don't like getting dirty, smelly or sweaty, three things one cannot avoid when working in the yard. Lubbock got some rain a few weeks ago, and things have really greened up. However, along with the new life comes weeds. Stubborn, ugly weeds. And the things about them is that they all come in different sizes and shapes. Some are easy to pull, some are not. Some weeds are covered in stickers while some produce little flowers. Some weeds stay small to the ground and some grow tall. I have a pretty nice yard, so the weeds were nothing but an eye sore. They weren't adding to it, they were starting to distract from it. Had we not gotten a handle on those weeds tonight but just let them grow wild, they would have taken the yard over (something my neighbor hasn't quite figured out yet). And just to make sure that they don't come back, we covered the yard in poison, hoping only to kill the weeds and not the grass.
Weeds pop up unexpectedly. You get a little water and a little sun and the next thing you know, there is a weed. Sometimes, we just leave them because they are small or there are only a few. They aren't too much of a bother and we're too busy to pull them right now, so we decide we'll get to it later. Later comes and the weeds have multiplied. The roots have grown deeper and deeper and it's going to be more trouble to pull them. So we continue waiting. We'll wait to it's cooler. We'll wait until we have more time. And by the time we get around to it, we have to put on our gloves, get in there with a shovel and dig those prickly, stubborn weeds up. It is hard work. Work we don't enjoy. Wouldn't it just be easier to mow them down? After all, when we keep them mowed, they blend it. But mowing doesn't eliminate the weeds, rather, it just disguises them for a few days.
As I pulled weeds tonight, I thought of life. I thought of how the Great Gardener has been de-weeding me. I have weeds of all different sizes and shapes. There have been weeds that He was able to pull up with ease, weeds that I didn't even notice were present until He plucked them out, weeds that were beginning to turn into trees, and weeds that looked as if they might be easy to pull but actually had roots that went deep into the soil. Some of these weeds were really pretty, and I didn't even realize they were weeds. I was too fascinated by the colorful flowers on the ends that I didn't notice how quickly they were spreading. But He saw.
And this detailed Gardener saw that it was time to start intervening before the weeds took over. He has worked on this landscape time and time again, and the time came to prune. To pull. To fertilize and water. To cut away so that new life could begin growing. And it was painful. He had to pull out the shovel and dig some of those big weeds up. I lamented over the pulling of the beautiful weeds and wondered if He knew what He was doing. I tried to talk Him into just mowing everything down so that it looked the same. I thought that would be easiest. But He knew the only way to a beautiful landscape was through hard work. Sweat, blood and tears.
And so the pulling began. And the pulling is still occurring. And I wonder how different it would have been had I paid attention to the weeds earlier. What if I had taken them time to address them when I saw them? To pluck them when they were small? To get some gardening tips from Him on how to keep them from growing?
But He is gracious, and as He has continued to pull, I am beginning to see just how green His thumb really is. And I'm sad that I was letting the weeds start to take over the landscape. How thankful I am that He stepped in. How thankful I am that He didn't wait until later to do the work, work that needed to be done long ago. And most of all, I'm thankful that even when He sees all these weeds, He knows what the landscape should look like and faithfully works until it becomes just what He designed.
#75 - Weed pulling.
"The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring." - Isaiah 58:11
Weeds pop up unexpectedly. You get a little water and a little sun and the next thing you know, there is a weed. Sometimes, we just leave them because they are small or there are only a few. They aren't too much of a bother and we're too busy to pull them right now, so we decide we'll get to it later. Later comes and the weeds have multiplied. The roots have grown deeper and deeper and it's going to be more trouble to pull them. So we continue waiting. We'll wait to it's cooler. We'll wait until we have more time. And by the time we get around to it, we have to put on our gloves, get in there with a shovel and dig those prickly, stubborn weeds up. It is hard work. Work we don't enjoy. Wouldn't it just be easier to mow them down? After all, when we keep them mowed, they blend it. But mowing doesn't eliminate the weeds, rather, it just disguises them for a few days.
As I pulled weeds tonight, I thought of life. I thought of how the Great Gardener has been de-weeding me. I have weeds of all different sizes and shapes. There have been weeds that He was able to pull up with ease, weeds that I didn't even notice were present until He plucked them out, weeds that were beginning to turn into trees, and weeds that looked as if they might be easy to pull but actually had roots that went deep into the soil. Some of these weeds were really pretty, and I didn't even realize they were weeds. I was too fascinated by the colorful flowers on the ends that I didn't notice how quickly they were spreading. But He saw.
And this detailed Gardener saw that it was time to start intervening before the weeds took over. He has worked on this landscape time and time again, and the time came to prune. To pull. To fertilize and water. To cut away so that new life could begin growing. And it was painful. He had to pull out the shovel and dig some of those big weeds up. I lamented over the pulling of the beautiful weeds and wondered if He knew what He was doing. I tried to talk Him into just mowing everything down so that it looked the same. I thought that would be easiest. But He knew the only way to a beautiful landscape was through hard work. Sweat, blood and tears.
And so the pulling began. And the pulling is still occurring. And I wonder how different it would have been had I paid attention to the weeds earlier. What if I had taken them time to address them when I saw them? To pluck them when they were small? To get some gardening tips from Him on how to keep them from growing?
But He is gracious, and as He has continued to pull, I am beginning to see just how green His thumb really is. And I'm sad that I was letting the weeds start to take over the landscape. How thankful I am that He stepped in. How thankful I am that He didn't wait until later to do the work, work that needed to be done long ago. And most of all, I'm thankful that even when He sees all these weeds, He knows what the landscape should look like and faithfully works until it becomes just what He designed.
#75 - Weed pulling.
"The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring." - Isaiah 58:11