Playing in the dirt.

Otherwise known as gardening, for those plant-whisperers blessed with a green thumb.  I am not one of them.  My thumb is decidedly the blackest of black.  We were able to take a couple of plants home last night for being table hosts at the Annual Miracle Hill Ministries banquet, and my sweet husband even remarked that the plants would surely die.  WELL . . .all I have to say to that is, GAME ON.  And so, in an effort to prove him wrong (not really), I spent the morning planting a gorgeous red plant with really pretty flowers and a lovely yellow flower plant.  Don't ask me what the names are.  In the process, I remembered why I loathe gardening.  Besides the fact that I am now covered in ant bites, planting the beautiful flowers made me notice all the weeds in the mulch bed and in our lawn.  Being me (read that: slightly OCD), I started digging up weeds and very soon had a nice layer of dirt, mulch and, let's not forget, ant bites . . . those little buggers are vicious!!  All in all, it was so much easier to plant the beautiful flowers than it was to dig up/tug at/yell at those stubborn weeds.

Although I will probably never enjoy gardening - and we shall see whether the new plants "surely die" or live to bloom another season or two - it does always remind me of my own internal garden, so to speak.  God is so gracious with his gifts to me . . . and while I am so thankful for and admire the beauty of them, there are far too many weeds in my heart.  To think that God is willing to get dirty and calloused in order to dig out the weeds takes my breath away.  Some weeds are fairly easy, of course, and their roots come up with a good tug.  But others, whose roots go so deep and seem to stretch endlessly, require hard toil - the kind that leave you with blisters on your hand and an aching back.

It's interesting that God's Word to us essentially starts in a garden - with no weeds!  Literally and spiritually.  Ahhhh, if only our lawn was like that.  The word garden appears in at least 21 books of the Bible - my favorites are the references in the Song of Solomon and Isaiah 58:11.  Also interesting is the fact that Jesus spent his last hours praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, before he was betrayed and handed over to be judged and murdered as an innocent sacrifice for us.

He knew it was his last night, and he chose to spend it in one of his favorite places, the garden, talking to his Father.  The ultimate act of gardening was done that night by this innocent, blameless God-man in willingly submitting himself to death for the sake of a desperately lost world.  In the English Standard Version (ESV), there is no mention of the word garden after the first four books of the New Testament. Why?  Maybe Paul, Peter, John and the other writers of the NT disliked gardening as much as I do.  Then again, Jesus is very much in the business of weeding, pruning and planting today for those who follow him.

He is the ultimate Gardener.  I am so grateful he never gives up on me, no matter how thick and pervasive the weed-infestation.