Have you
ever noticed how we tend to look at the weeds in our own yards and flowers in
someone else’s yard? Maybe you do not do this, but I do. Everyone else’s yard
always looks nicer than my own. You know, “the grass is always greener…” And,
we’ve had others do that in our own yard too. My husband always gets a little nervous
when I step outside to take a walk around our yard because he knows me, and he
knows I will treasure the beauty of the yard, but that I will also see
everything that needs to be done. And that usually means a lot of work for us.
(especially him)
He told me
the other day that one of our friends mentioned that she had walked through our
yard recently and thought that it was lovely. Maybe she noticed the plethora of
weeds, but she did not mention them. The truth is, I enjoy our yard very much.
I really enjoy the beautiful flowers, watching the butterflies gently land on
the butterfly bushes, the sound of an approaching humming bird and the bright
yellow finches on our feeders. And I love the freshly grown tomatoes that await
us in our veggie garden. It all sounds wonderful doesn’t it? Almost like the
Garden of Eden! Well, not so much. You see, also in our yard is a constant battle
with deer that eat everything we plant, moles and voles that will suck a plant
into the ground right before our eyes (yes I’ve witnessed that before!), squirrels
that chew right through our plastic bird feeders to get to the tasty food inside,
and then there is the ongoing war with weeds. Good grief. It doesn’t sound much
like the Garden of Eden anymore does it?
Well, I
guess you are wondering where this is going…me too! It is easy to look into
other people’s gardens or into their lives and see only what we want to see,
the beauty (and then on the flip side of that, sometimes all we focus on is
their greatest weakness, instead of their greatest strength). At first glance we may only see the beautiful
things in someone’s life, but if we look more closely there is a LOT more going
on. We just tend to look on the outside, but God looks at the heart. It is easy
to look at someone on the outside and think we have them all figured out. Well,
probably not.
I was
having a conversation with some folks last night and we were talking about how
we hoped that we were more comfortable in our Christian skin now than we were
ten years ago, more “mature”. All three of us agreed quickly that we think we
are, but am I? Do I really feel that I am different in a positive way than I was
ten years ago? I had to immediately change my answer to, “well, some days I am
and some days I’m not.” Some days, I do spend enough time in God’s Word, some
days I do learn from His Word and obediently live it out. Some days I do love
people well, offering the same grace and mercy that the Lord offers me
constantly. But truthfully, some days, there are more weeds in my life than
flowers. Some days I do not love very well. Some days I do not live out God’s
Word as I should. Some days, I’m not very gracious or forgiving at all. On
those days, I may be tempted to look at someone else’s “garden” and see lots of
beautiful “flowers” that I’d like to see in my own “garden”.
The good
news is that God’s mercy is new every morning. He is always tending to the
garden in our hearts, if we’ll let Him. In Lamentations 3:22-23, it says, “Because
of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They
are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Weeds in a garden can be
bad news. It does not take very long for them to consume an entire flower bed.
The same thing is true in our hearts. The weeds of life can consume our hearts
very quickly. And if that happens, we lose our focus. The weeds of
unforgiveness or pride can quickly distract us. We can become self-focused and the
root of bitterness can quickly overtake us. That does not make for a beautiful “garden”
in our hearts. These things can change us and cause us to lose our joy. They
can cause us to stop doing what is most important, loving and serving God and
others. These things can wreak havoc in our lives and Satan would like nothing
more than to clutter our minds with weeds. But, again, we have the good news
that God’s mercy is new every morning. He keeps offering us new chances to get
it right, to clear our life gardens of the weeds that can destroy us. How do we
get those weeds out of our hearts? Well, I would say by pulling them and
replacing them with the beauty of God’s Word. If we fill our minds with His Word,
we will be transformed by it. We are not to conform to the ways of this world, (Romans
12:2) but we are to be transformed instead by the Word of God, allowing it to
renew our minds, to clean them up and refresh them, just like pulling weeds
from a flower garden allows the plants in it to grow and thrive, in a more
healthy way. What an incredible picture! I don’t know about you, but I’ve got
lots more weeds that need pulling from my heart and mind! I want God to get to work
on my heart right away, but it will not be easy, pulling weeds is hard work!
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