The Fruitful Life
I’ve realised I’m getting old. Gone are the days that I play on the PlayStation, or hang out with the cool kids. I now get excited over the planting season. A few weeks ago, I spent a day digging over the planters and planting some vegetable & fruit plants. Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, pumpkin, melon & lemon plants all now exist in my garden. I used to laugh at my Dad for doing this, but I have succumbed to the planting life.
I thought the hard bit was done. It was so hot as I churned over the planting bed and planted the small fledgling plants. After a few hours, I was feeling it! I was satisfied that I had planted and now I can sit back, put my feet up and get ready for the harvest… If only that was the case!
Since then, I have been watering the seeds twice a day, pulling out weeds every other day, and each evening ensuring that slugs and snails are staying away from my precious plants.
Here’s my thought… When God plants something in us, it can often feel uncomfortable, disrupting and sometimes painful, but I’ve realised, that is the easy part! The hard part is nurturing the plant so that we can become all that God wants us to be. I’ve been reflecting on 3 areas of how I have been caring for my plants and what that means for us.
1. Water daily – Make sure that you water daily. Get in the word. Sit in the presence of God. Spend time with Him. Allow Him to quench your thirst and refresh you DAILY. A day without water, and plants shrivel up, how true is that of our walk with Jesus too. Psalm 23:1-3 says “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” That is refreshing right there!
2. Weed regularly – If we don’t weed regularly, then it won’t be long before the weeds overtake the seeds. Weeds grow so much quicker than plants! A small weed is easy to pull out, but a weed that is allowed time to take root, is so much harder to tackle. Sometimes we don’t see weeds in our lives, so allow someone to speak into you to help you with your weeding.
3. Ward off – Keep an eye on those slugs and snails. The slow things that creep up on us and start devouring the growth. Habits. Attitudes. Thoughts. Words. Actions. This list just keeps getting longer the more that I think about what slow things creep up on me! I find myself every evening ensuring that I have the right protection in place to stop these little critters eating all of my plants. If I forget, the next day, all of the green shoots of growth have been munched away. Make sure that you have some defence systems in place to ward of the things that want to rob you of your growth.
If we keep an eye on the above 3 areas, looking after what God has planted in us, then the fruitful life beckons.
Psalm 1:1-3 says “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.”
P.S. I’ll let you know how I get on with my plants when it’s harvest season!
Tom Geatches