THE NOT-SO-CONSTANT-GARDNER

I live in a neighborhood where several of the houses have fairly large yards. Those that surround us at the “Berry-Patch” have at least an acre or so. Our property is just a little shy of two. I do a lot of reading, praying, studying and all-round-pondering (i.e. worship) sitting on our patio in the backyard – weather permitting.

Today (7/6/’09) as I was sitting there the Holy Ghost began to speak to me about kingdom stuff using the garden in the yard that’s directly behind our house. This is what took place:

In late spring the gentleman that lives there drove a pick up truck into his side yard filled with some type of specially prepared fertilizer. It came in rolls and there were several. He unloaded them and then began to break them apart with a shovel, a hoe, and his bare hands. No other preparation had taken place but I assumed that he had plans to plant something there.

One morning some two weeks later, another truck showed up in his driveway. This time it had one of those small backhoes on a small trailer behind it. The man driving the truck unloaded the bobcat and in no time at all he had plowed out a good size plot of ground that was clearly intended to become a produce garden.

A day or two later my neighbor was out there for several hours doing some very exacting work. He measured off the plowed plot; then measured off evenly laid out and divided rows within it; then he took heavy twine and stretched it out across the entire space. I was very impressed – I could see he had a purpose for this space having invested his time, money, and energy on it.

Then not many days later I saw him out again. This time he had what appeared to be some type of special wooden box in his hands. I watched him kneel down and begin to carefully take several packages of seed out of it. And, again he spend the better part of a day patiently planting those things that he clearly intended to nurture in hopes of reaping a harvest of the fruits (and vegetables) of his labor. At least that was his apparent intention.

Instead something else happened. Either he got distracted by “other things”; or his work schedule forced him to readjust his priorities; or he got bored with the project; or he just got to lazy too bother with it. I don’t know for certain why things changed. But they clearly did. I saw him out there only one more time early one evening. He sat up a sprinkler and began to water what he’d so carefully planted. Since that evening, there’s been no more attention given to the ground or the seeds in it.

Today (some 2 ½ months later) as I look out across my yard and over into his this is what I saw: Weeds!

If you were to look at his garden spot today having not noticed the work that he did several weeks ago, you’d be hard pressed to even know that the area was any different from the rest of his yard. Now it just looks like a section that needs a good mowing. There’s nothing there except for the weeds due to lack of attention. No, that’s not totally true. The twine is still stretched out across what was once plowed ground. If you walked over near it you’d still be able to see that it divides up the land into rows meant for something besides weeds. There is one stalk of corn about 10 inches high and what appears to be a plant that wanted to be squash. But, a garden it isn’t – not even close.

As I surveyed the scene the Holy Ghost spoke to me regarding our lives in the Spirit. This is what I heard Him say:

Planning, preparation and intention are all necessary things in order to set aside a space in our lives for the seed of God’s Word to be planted. That’s called consecration. However, once the seed is sown it will require something more from us. That's call self-discipline. Ongoing, regular and diligent attention will have to be factored into our schedules (our lifestyles) if we hope to have anything coming up from the seed that can be used to feed our hungry souls. Without care and proper attention kingdom seeds are chocked out by temporal weeds (see Mark 4:19).

"In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life." (Ja.1:21 / The Message Bible)


"VEGETABLES"

I'm gonna be round my vegetables
I'm gonna chow down my vegetables
I love you most of all
My favorite vege-table

If you brought a big brown bag of them home
I'd jump up and down and hope you'd toss me a carrot

I'm gonna keep well my vegetables
Cart off and sell my vegetables
I love you most of all
My favorite vege-table

I tried to kick the ball but my tenny flew right off
I'm red as a beet 'cause I'm so embarassed

I know that you'll feel better
When you send us in
Your letter an'
Tell us the name of your
Your favorite vege-table


(By: Brian Wilson / Beach Boys / Smiley Smile / You Tube)


Copyrignt Secured: See & Say (Songs & Such), BMI