Gardenening… Last year I didn’t get the exact kind of seed I wanted to plant in our garden. I waited too long, and the store was all sold out. I’ve fussed at myself all year, determined that I wouldn’t make that mistake this year. We tried to buy them last week..they didn’t have them yet. Maybe today…
Gardening is a lot of work. The ground has to be properly prepared. It can’t be too wet, or too dry…it must be tilled, not hard and compacted. The soil must be ready, or else the chances of a seed germinating are slim.
Paul speaks in gardening language in 1 Corinthians 3. He talks about the planting and the watering. He uses carpenter language in referring to the preparation time and how important the foundation is. In gardening, the foundation is the soil and it’s preparation.
If you call yourself by the Name of Christ, you’re a gardener. You are either tilling soil or packing it down. You’re either making a heart softer and preparing it for seed, or you’re packing it down, making it harder so that it will reject seed.
You may not be a sower, your gifting may not be as an evangelist… ( and don’t get that confused with a job description that comes with a paycheck). ‘Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy….or ministry….or teaching…’ (Romans 12:6,7)
Make no mistake, Adam was created a gardener…‘ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Even to work it and take care of it. ’ (Gen. 2:15) ….and in the New Adam, Jesus Christ, we too are gardeners. The soil of our garden plot is under our feet every moment of our life. ‘Go into all the world….and preach…’ (Mark 16: 15)
This soil issue is as important as the seed. I can buy the seed store out…throw it on the ground, and see no harvest…no peas on my table. I could plow and till the ground until I drop in my tracks…but if somebody comes behind me with a steam roller, pressing the soil down, the ground will be packed and need yet more attention.
I want to be a good gardener. I want always to be making the soil of hearts ready to receive the Seed, whether it is me that sows it or someone else. The Seed will germinate only when the heart is ready.
God forgive us when we pack down soil with our bad attitudes and self-righteousness, hindering the soil of that heart to receive and sprout the Life of God.
