Weeding out sin from the garden of Life

The idea for this blog devotional has been rolling around in my idea bank for some time now. It was given water as I attended a writer's conference a week ago. Today is seed day. I am a word gardener. The fact that I cannot escape the theme of gardening throughout God's word is sort of funny, since it is my sister who has the heirloom garden. But there I was, yesterday looking at my butterfly garden. As most of you have noticed spring has been generous and kind, and early to those of us here in South Carolina. My butterfly garden is actually a shape in the ground cut out like a butterfly in the middle of my side yard. In the center of the garden is a butterfly bush and surrounding that are daisies, zinnias and forget me nots. I have a couple of hollyhocks that show up too. I bought the ones that were chocolate brown in color, and paper white ones grew. Such is my gardening skills. I hope for one thing, plan for one thing, and get the opposite. God is funny like that, and sometimes not in a haha way. But He says "For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." His word is always true and His purpose involves pursuing us in Love. So I am standing there, looking at this mess of a garden gone crazy, and I start to weed. Just one at a time. The weeds are sharing the same dirt nutrient system as the flowers that feed the hummingbirds and butterflies, and those weeds are stealing from the plan of survival I want to see in my garden. I wish I had gotten the weeds as they were just taking root, but I was distracted by Life and missed that window of easier opportunity. Now there is serious work to be done in order to reclaim the ground for the purpose it was originally intended for. Heck, I even notice that my border of monkey grass which defined the butterfly shape resembles a hippie hairdo from the 60's--too unmanaged and seriously unbridled. I start with the outer area of the garden. It is a slow process and I notice that some of the weeds break off and leave the root system hidden underneath. These roots have a system that goes deeper than I want to admit but if I want them to be removed, I have to work even harder to discover where they go and how tangled they are around the good stuff in my garden. Then I see the topical flora and what I thought were flowers are really vine-y weeds grabbing and wrapping to get above the beauty of the flowers and steal the light and focus. These I really do not like because I can visibly see the weeds strangling the zinnia. I want to reach into the middle of the garden and start there but I really cannot even navigate to the middle because the outside circumference has the problems I need to deal with first. Wow, if you stand afar and view my garden, it looks green and lush. Up close is a different story. And it finally dawns on me that this is totally me. In the center of my heart is a sort of butterfly bush...Proverbs 4:23 tells me "Guard your heart above all else, for it is the wellspring of life." Wow, I may have missed this about myself. Guard my heart? How?? I know that "blessed is the pure in heart for they shall see God" (Matt 5:8) and I want to see God. I know that the first commandment is "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (Deuteronomy 6:4-6) How can I guard my heart? I have broken it and given it away and lost it and built a wall around it for future protection. I may have tried to flat out kill it a few times for good measure in case my dreams and hope got out of hand...and now I find that it is the well spring of life (the essence of life's issues). Great. I am full of weeds, some deeply rooted, and my heart is probably malnourished as a result. Now what? And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.Philippians 4:6-8 Ah, refuge. The Master Guardener. Maybe you were expecting a different do it yourself response? It is a do it yourself approach. Love Him. Repent. I know, that repent thing is a pain...but it does not mean wear it on your sleeve and walk around in a Saducee face of reproachful Woa is me attitude. Repent means "to change directions". Submit, which is a letting go.... Let go to freedom..."for I know the plans I have for you..." I want in on those plans too! I want to know what the creator of the entire Universe has in store for me. Walking together through the wilderness of life on the journey to the new Garden of Eden. Yes, this is going to be one wild journey! We might need some armor for the dangers along the way...