The Constant Gardener

I was just thinking...it's been a while since I've written anything. I've been asked but I find that I have to write about what I know. Mostly personal experiences that people can relate to. Any other day I wouldn't have considered today to be a good day. The weather is foul and due to the weather my 20 minute commute to and from work turned into an hour going and an hour and a half returning. It would seem that I am becoming a mule at work. Now all of this may seem like a complaint BUT today was one of THE BEST days! I heard spoken today that once you start living in the love of Christ, everything else becomes so trivial. I'm not here to talk about my day though. I said all that only because my day was an inspiration to this writing. The things that were fed to me during the course of my day gave me inspiration and motivation. So without further ado. I was thinking how so much like flowers we are. How external factors can limit our growth. How beautiful but delicate we are. Some grow in the wild but the ones that are part of a garden or nursery are the most cherished. We all need the same things to survive. Food, water, the Son. No, I didn't misspell it. It's all relative. I wondered at how sometimes you start off with flowers you consider friends but as you start blossoming, they seem to disappear. Then I thought, that's part of the gardener's job, to pull weeds. Weeds stifle growth. They steal essential nutrients leaving the flower to slowly wilt and eventually die. A loving gardner could never allow this. Wildflowers use their own devices. If there is no one pulling the weeds, they will take over. Some flowers are fooled because some weeds have pretty petals and come in the guise of a fellow flower. However, the gardener knows a flower from a weed. There isn't a flower alive that doesn't require water. We often look at rain as a bad thing but without it, it would be impossible to appreciate the Son. Without rain we couldn't reach full maturity so that healthy seedlings can come forth from us and be scattered to the four winds to create healthy new flowers. When the Son shines on us, we stretch toward the heavens in anticipation but by night our roots burrow deeper and deeper into the earth. We must be mindful not to become so deeply rooted in the earth that the gardener becomes displeased with what's growing. There is so much love, time and effort that the gardener gives his garden. When strong winds come and leave you leaning he stands you back up and gives you what you need to brave the next wind. He protects you from all that might prey on you. You are covered by the strongest pesticide there is. As many varieties and colors of flowers, the gardener always knows which are his. As flowers go we aren't meant to live forever. We're here for the pleasure of the gardener. We were meant to be plucked.