Lessons from the Garden

The dreaded heart-shaped vine. (Morning Glory) It's beautiful.  Its leaves are heart-shaped and the flowers are a gorgeous purple color.  Problem is, it takes over and chokes out all living plants around it.  Our summer garden has long since been gone not having had much fruit at all this past summer, due in part to these beautiful deadly vines and due in (large) part to our neglect. 
As I went out to cut them all down today and try to free the thin string of lights I had placed around our garden this past summer, I noticed the vines and woven themselves tightly around everything! The wire fence was wound tightly with green vines.  The thin wire connecting all the little lights was so tightly wrapped up that separating the vine from the lights became impossible without cutting the wire, resulting in the severing of the power source. 

As I worked and tugged and cut these vines I thought about how small habits that may seem harmless and, oh so pretty, can soon become a tightly wound labyrinth of growth suffocating all other living things within its reach.  The pretty lights that once surrounded the garden were also enveloped by this crafty, snaky vine.  All that was left before I began to cut and pull and clear the tangled mess was brown, dried, hardened vines with one or two purple flowers clinging to life.
Be careful what you allow to grow in your life. 

"Listen!  A farmer went out to plant seeds.  As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them.  Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow.  But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn't have deep roots, they died.  Other seeds fell among thorns that few up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!  Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand....
The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced."  (Matthew 13:3-22)

"Since we have such a huge crowd of men and women of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, our leader and instructor.  He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards; and now he sits in the place of honor by the throne of God."  (Hebrews 12:1-2)