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What, more weeds? (4 May )

What, more weeds???

Over the Easter weekend, Stephen and I decided to attack the weed infested garden.  We are not exactly nurturing gardeners, which would mean giving great care and attention to the wide varieties of plants which endlessly sprout.  We are more binge gardeners, crying ‘oh no the weeds are taking over, quick we need to take action’.  The cause of this cry on this occasion was the appearance of a vicious and vibrant weed which was laying claim to the majority of one border.  It was time to deal with it.

This is where it all started!

This particular weed had (although it is actually a ‘has’, for it has not gone) web-like roots travelling far underground, it was hard work.  However after some success, we had the clearing and weeding bug, so we progressed onto another border where grass seemed to be happily sprouting, unlike the ‘lawn’ which seems to sprout weeds. Why is this the case?  Anyway the grass in the border needed to come out.  As I painstakingly knelt and crawled around the ground, thinking, I have done all this before and I will do it all again, I thought, it’s just as well God is not like me.

You see God does not grow tired of my weeds, that is, weary of my problems, my failures, my cries for help or questions why.  God is patient when I plant where soil is not fruitful and he nurtures when the seedlings are weak.  God sees the beauty of unexpected plants (aka weeds) growing in the cracks of my life and may even say – perhaps you want to nurture that and not pull it up.  Cultivating any garden ‘entails the rooted realities of interdependence and intimacy’*  In the average back garden, the plants and insect life are totally depend on each other; there is dependence on the weather and dependence on me providing nurture.  All of this is a grubby, grounded, raw and intimate process.  Likewise the cultivation of the garden of our life, walking with God through that garden, is a process of interdependence and intimacy.  When we truly embrace our dependence on God and are prepared to let him into the deepest places, it is then that he patiently weeds, pulls up the dross and waters our souls, that we may flourish with him.

God and I differ in many ways, you’ll be glad to know and in this context, where I dread weeding and am poor at nurturing, he delights to weed and repair the brokenness of our lives.  In fact interdependence and intimacy are God’s delight and plan for us all.

I would like to think that these meanderings of my brain, will increase my motivation to weed and nurture my garden, but sadly I am fairly sure they won’t.  However thankfully, God will continue to nurture me with grace and love, protect me from harmful weeds and bad habits and he will grow fruit in me and through me that I never thought possible.

Next time you are doing a task that you find tedious and repetitive, what may God say to you?

*Quote from ‘The Cultivated Life’ by Susan S Philips