By David Smith

Being a world-class procrastinator, I didn't want to rush into planting my flowers in early May like normal Midwesterners do. But everyone else had flowers in their yard, and all I had were weedy flower beds, so I finally shamed myself into getting some yard work done.

I picked up a flat of marigolds at K-Mart, and I congratulated myself on buying them at a close-out discount. What glorious financial stewardship I can display sometimes. So why does my family just think I'm cheap?

But I digress...back to the story of planting: I realized that the flower bed, having been neglected for a season, had to be prepared before I could create my beautiful floral masterpiece. So first came the hard work (which perhaps explains my procrastination) of weeding and cultivating the soil.

MAKING A NEW CREATION

I was a man with a mission, so I got down and dirty with the earth. I crawled through the flower bed, pulling weeds out by the roots, and cleared out all of the leaves, sticks and other debris that cluttered the area. Soon I was ready to cultivate.

I tore into that tough, compacted soil with my trusty Garden Claw (as seen on TV) and soon I had a flower bed worthy of the name. The soil was loose, fine, and soft down to a depth of about 6 inches. With the bed finally prepared to my satisfaction, I gently planted my flowers, carefully tamped the soil, and then spread the mulch.

After a good soaking with the sprinkler, my marigolds were ready to flourish in the home I prepared for them, and I could spend the rest of the summer enjoying their beauty. As I relaxed and surveyed the fruits of my labors, it dawned on me that there was a spiritual lesson to be found in all of this gardening. (Don't pretend like you didn't see this coming.)

GOD IS A MASTER GARDENER

If you are a Christian, and therefore a child of God, you will discover sooner rather than later that he is going to pretty regularly want to straighten you up and do new things with your life, whether you like it or not.

(Amazing as this sounds, God has never once asked for my advice about anything he wanted to do with me. Not one single time! Go figure.)

Of course, when God gets ready to plant some new refinements into your character, he is confronted with the necessity of first getting the weeds, debris and other crud in your life out of the way. You know your crud better than I do, so don't make me draw you an ugly picture.

When God begins to weed your life, it can make you pretty uncomfortable; sometimes downright irritated.  Before you know it, he's poking and prodding and convicting you of various selfish behaviors that you are perfectly content to let be, thank you very much! As a final insult to your self-contentment, God has a way of sticking that flawless heavenly mirror of his right in front of your face, and forcing you to take a long hard look at yourself. This is not usually a pleasant exercise.

Being selfish, flawed creatures, we don't appreciate having our shortcomings and sinfulness sifted through by an intrusive Creator. But we had best "get over it" because God is a lot bigger than us and he will find a way to have his way.

Repent now or repent later -- God will eventually wear you down. Like they say in the cop shows, "You can do this the easy way, or the hard way."

GOD CULTIVATES OUR CHARACTER

Then, after all of that annoying weeding, comes the cultivating. Ouch! All of a sudden God is stirring up your world in ways you never anticipated. He's shredding your pre-conceived notions, chopping up your hard-heartedness, and crumbling up your comfortable routine.

Thankfully, in due time this process is completed, and we are finally ready to receive what God has prepared for us. In place of all the debris and clutter that we had allowed to accumulate in our lives, God plants a new and beautiful direction for service that we would never have thought of for ourselves. (This should come as no surprise, him being all-knowing and us being all-ignorant.)

Now, instead of a life as useless as a weed-choked flower bed, we exude a beautiful new fragrance. We're ready to bless this world afresh, and we are able to share God's love in new and exciting ways. All of the disruption that we so wished to avoid was actually the best thing that could have happened to us.

Hmmm...all of this horticultural allegory has led me to begin pondering the pruning that I need to give my apples trees...but let's save that story for another day.