The shaping of a flower bed.

 

Let me start by saying that I am not a gardener. I have tried a few times to nurture a plant or two. Those attempts quickly laid bare my lack of any skill. Recently however, we moved to the UK and into a house with a lovely garden. Winter has come and is now on its way out and its time to get into gardening. We have neighbours who are great at it and are also kind enough to pop over and give advice. One day our neighbour came across and showed me what was to be done to certain bits of the garden so as to create room for a flower bed. He basically stuck a fork in the ground and pulled out huge chunks of the ground. Following his advice that’s what I have been busy with – turning over big chunks of the ground and making room for two flower beds. The idea (as much as I have learned so far) is to dig the ground and pull out all weeds and roots that are found underneath and then work the ground to create the flower bed

 

I sat there today in the middle of this project and looked at all the mounds of ground that had been dug up. It did not look attractive in any way. From just a simple section of garden it now looked like someone had exploded a stick of dynamite somewhere beneath our house. It looked like death and destruction everywhere with clumps of roots being over turned with each burrow of the fork or spade. But that’s just one phase of the project. Soon the ground will be smoothed over. Soon seeds or seedlings will be planted. Soon (if, after all I do have green fingers) there will be explosions of colour as flowers and other plants start to bloom and blossom. There will a celebration of life as butterflies and bees and bumble bees and ladybirds and other friends come fill this space.

 

That pause to look at the mounds reminded me of God’s work in my life – in our lives. Sometimes sections of our life, or maybe even the entirety of our life can look like an earthed, dug, bomb scene kind of garden. It might look someone took a massive scissors and just had their way in shredding things to bits. It might all look desolate and destroyed. But God knows what He is upto. He knows the deep roots of sin, hurt, pain, pride, bitterness and so much more that need to be dug out. He knows how deep those roots and how far He has to dig. He is not going to just plant new life over a network of roots of the old life that will just choke His work. He knows His work. He is a master gardener. He knows how to turn the soil of our life. And He knows how to “plant that flower bed”. He is the one who will bring new life in those places. He is the one who will bring colour and celebration. Trust the gardener. Trust His plan and His purpose. He works and His work is excellent and loving and majestic.