The Weeds of Life
THE WEEDS OF LIFE
Since this is gardening time, I have taken it upon myself to do the weeding in the early morning when the dew is still wet on the plants.
God never lets a moment go by to teach me a lesson. Do you ever notice when you do weed, the varieties of weeds that grow?
There are those that if you pull on them just once the whole weed, root and all comes out. These are the sins and vices that we can easily discard. They usually are stopped without much effort on our part.
Then there are those weeds which are sparse and hidden under and around the actual plant that produces food. These weeds are the hidden sins that pretend to be good but are really taking the nutrients away from the fruitful plant. Some of theses sins we are not even aware of due to wounds from the past or distorted views.
There are also vining weeds that wrap around the plants and try to overpower them. Even though the roots are very easy to pull out, you must be careful to unwrap it from the prized plant you are trying to grow. These are the sins that are trying to take control of your life. These sins are making you like a puppet, all tied up. As long as these sins exist, you won’t be able to reach the potential God has for you. Remember, the root system is weak so God is giving you the power to remove these sins by your actions. Maybe going to daily mass when you can or saying the rosary, etc.
Then there’s weeds that grow just about anywhere with big, strong arms or tentacles that seem to reach every plant in the garden. Try as you may, tugging with all your strength, you cannot remove it all, only a portion. You try again with all your might and only another portion is removed, but there is still so much left. Now any gardener knows that you must remove the roots or else it will grow back. I pulled, shook and twisted with all my might on this weed in the big raised bed full of dirt to no avail.
These weeds represent the sins that, try as we may by ourselves, we cannot eradicate. These are the sins where we need to ask God for assistance. God even gave me an example of how this works.
We have a weed barrier on the ground between the rows of our raised beds. Despite this barrier, stubborn weeds can still grow if they have access to soil. Some soil happened to come out of one of the beds. It is a very small amount but just enough to cover the barrier. The weeds that grew on them were the same ones that I have mentioned, even the one with the deep roots that could not be removed without some other intervention. Preparing to pull with all my might, I was able to remove it with ease along with the dirt that covered the barrier. This is the difference between relying on our ourselves and relying on God to remove the obstacles to true union with Him. He not only removed the weed, but also the soil that was misplaced, not where it should have been. God not only removes the sin but replaces you to where you should be, in His arms.
The weeds of life come upon us every second, but if we use our barrier to separate us from those weeds, God will take charge and the garden of our hearts will be bursting with every flower and plant imaginable.
For there will be a sowing of peace: the vine will yield its fruit,
the land will yield its crops, and the heavens* will yield their dew. I will give all these things to the remnant of this people to possess.
Zechariah 8:12
