The Weeds of Life

I love nature and its beauty. I am always thrilled, awed, and humbled by it. I love photographing it. I guess this is why God has taught me some amazing lessons through it. On my way to church one Sunday in the States, I noticed the colors that sprinkled the edges of the road. There were so many different plants that strutted their crowns.

However, these crowns were not on the “wanted” plants we long to have strutting their stuff in our garden beds. They were mean, stubborn, nasty weeds. How can something so hated be so beautiful? They come in so many different colors, shapes and sizes! Oh, how they can bring a smile to my face along a boring highway that is shimmering from these jeweled crowns.

This is where God has been teaching me a lesson from a long time. I have weeds in my life that disguise themselves as beautiful and helpful. I allow them to stay because they “add” to my landscape – some willfully and some unknowingly. But these weeds do more than "add" to the my landscape!

Weeds take away the nutrients of the good plants around them. They grow out of control and begin to make the ground awful for growing anything else. Did I mention that they are back-braking to get out! Weeds begin to choke out any new seeds planted. The ground no longer accepts good seeds because it has become so ripped of all nutrients that support real plant life.

Over the past 9 months, God has shown me what things in my life are weeds and opening my eyes to the true ugliness and devastation that comes from them. He has been showing me a little by little, the weeds that were hidden or the ones that I really just saw as decoration. The enemy, satan, is so great at making us rationalize that some of these things aren't weeds; and that it is truly helping to add to the beauty of my landscape. Or satan gets me thinking "well that's just a product of my life and there's nothing that can be done about it."

That's what the enemy wants us to believe but thank Jesus that He is our Gardner. John 15:1-2 "I [Jesus] am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch that doesn't produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more." Isn't our God great! He knows exactly which ones are weeds and He has the remedy for them! All we have to do is give Him permission to prune us, deweed us, and heal our soil (mind and heart). Then the good seed, full of life, can be taken in by the soil and produce real beauty that is nothing less than stunning.