I usually don’t wear gloves when I weed. I prefer to get my hands dirty. I like to slip my fingers sub-terrain and work them along the highways of root systems. And those highways are complex, starting on one side of my flower bed and ending on the other. Sometimes I’m a lazy weeder and pull quickly at what I see above the dirt, that which disrupts the beauty of my flower beds. I don’t always take time to use a hand trowel, piercing down and pulling up roots.
It occurred to me the other day while bending over to pull a few early spring weeds the metaphor of life and sin that exists in the ecosystem of plants and weeds. Sin no more sits on the surface of our lives as a weed sits on the surface of the ground. It goes deeper than what we imagine. We think a few external plucks will take care of what others see, the actions the disrupt our well-portrayed life. We go right for the obvious because its easier than dealing with the hidden. Clean up the cussing, cut out the angry outbursts, pull at the impatience, perhaps spray sin-killer on the greed and the lust.
But what about the roots? The highway of sin is a fully cemented road system that penetrates the parts of us that nobody sees, and we often don’t see ourselves. Removing the obvious leaves us clean for a bit, but the sin will surely come back, perhaps even stronger than before (it’s the concept Jesus mentions in Matthew 12:44-45 concerning the unclean spirits). The source of the issue must be dealt with.
There’s only one way to get rid of sin, and it’s not through our earnest gardening. It’s His gardening. His fingers reaching into the complexities of our lives and untangling the healthy roots of His Spirit from the unhealthy roots of our sin. He gets to the bottom line. He takes care of the attitudes and motives that produce the weeds. He plants the good seed of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
We must abide with the Gardener (read John 15). We must let the heavenly trowel dig. We must keep the soil soft so as to make His pulling-up easy.
Think on these things as you garden this spring. What roots in your life are you trying to ignore? What roots is He trying to pull?
This is a very helpful illustration of why we need “inner healing” and a reminder of our need to humbly let Jesus through the Holy Spirit work His grace in our innermost being.
Just the other day someone told me they use needle-nosed pliers to reach down and pull out grass roots. It is good to know God has the right tools for the deep roots of my hidden sins. I am reminded of a former huge fear I had of someday having to have a tooth pulled. When this becme a reality it was not near the horrible ordeal I had imagined. The oral surgeon was kind enough to acknowledge my fears. I was able to put my confidence in her and felt somewhat hopeful I would survive. Today I read Ps 31:24, “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” I’m so thankful I am God’s child through the work of Jesus and that my hope is sure in Him so that I can say, “I think you need to take your pliers, this is a deep one and I want it out.”