God calls us to faithfully persist in hoeing the solid ground of our hearts and replenishing it with the needed nutrients and rich dirt that God so generously supplies.
I am a novice gardener, with an emphasis on the word “novice.” There is something therapeutic for me to be working outside in the garden, rather than tending to the needed desk work that seems to be always piled high. Call me crazy, but when we lived in Chicago and were renting an older home, my thrill was to get on the riding lawnmower and mow the 3 acre yard! Maybe it had to do with the enjoyment of putting in the earplugs and shutting the world out or maybe it was the idea that this was my 2 hour escape from the life of being a young mom? It probably was both. ;)
But as we have come to southern France, I have continued my love for the garden and have enjoyed getting to know the various plants that grow well in this soil. And as Fall has arrived, it has come time to get out and survey the damage caused by the severe lack of rain, high temperatures, and an unexpected hospital stay this past summer.
My attention was focused this past week on a certain bed that needed immense work. In years past it has been filled with lavender plants. But because of the combination of us being gone for 7 weeks, high temperatures here in the area and the plants being the perfect height for our dog to relieve himself on, the poor plants needed to be replaced. However, as John and I began to work the soil, discouragement began to set in for me. The hard earth was filled with rocks of every size that were interspersed with weeds that I’m sure have their root system all the way to China! The soil was so difficult to manage and till.
Yet, as I was working with the hoe in my hand, my thoughts began to think of the spiritual fields here in Montpellier, as well as all over the world. The spiritual ground at times can be like cement as the world’s persistent voices and opinions speak so loudly to us. Our hearts grow hard and some of those pesky “roots” of wrong decisions or bad habits make the “soil” of our lives visibly rough.
But God calls us to faithfully persist in hoeing the solid ground of our hearts and replenishing it with the needed nutrients and rich dirt that God so generously supplies. With these commands in view, John and I continue to till the soil here in Montpellier. We keep picking up the needed utensils to break up the fallow ground of our own hearts and then also coming along side those God has given us to serve. But we not only seek to faithfully hoe the ground, but we want to make sure that the needed nutrients of God’s Word is being poured lavishly into the soil so that the ground of people’s hearts would produce the most beautiful and fragrant “spiritual” garden for the Lord’s glory and pleasure.
As I continued working in the flower bed in our yard that day, my thoughts no longer lingered over the hardness of the ground, but my eyes began to see the end result of the fragrant lavender that will begin to grow and blossom in this rocky, clay soil. My mind likens it to the fragrance that I have delighted in as I have watched people who have turned to the One and True God and have allowed the Master Gardener to till up the fallow ground of their hearts and produce in them a fragrance that is none other than heavenly. … Oh, how fragrant heaven will be!
Keeping my eyes on the end goal changes the way I view today’s hard work in the “fields.”
“… and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
