Yesterday, I spent considerable effort extracting a green briar plant from my one prolific elderberry bush. I had equipped myself with leather gloves, a pruner, a shovel, a wheelbarrow, and "time," that most precious of all commodities. The ugly green vine emphatically wrapped itself around my legs and back as I cut it down. Then I tracked the remaining stems down to the ground where they had sandwiched themselves among the roots of the elderberry.

"Oh," I murmured to myself, "Why must gardening be so hard?" Almost as an audible voice, God’s Word came forcibly to my mind: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." Oh, yes, that’s right, it’s for my sake! I know that! It is appointed to us to have these aggravating bugs, thorny vines, abundant weeds, brittle earth, and adverse weather conditions. This is to make us aware of the fact that life, true life, (not just the parasitic version of it that our cruel enemy, Satan, wants to give us), --- that true life doesn’t come easy.

We are not enjoying the Plan A that God intended us to have. When God placed our first parents in the garden of Eden, everything was perfectly adapted to the end for which it was made, but it still needed to be tenderly "dressed and kept." Genesis 2:15. The work of Adam and Eve was pleasant and regenerative. But when man departed from his obedience to God, he was doomed to wrestle with the seeds of Satan’s sowing, and to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. He would have to battle in hardship to seize life from the despair, discouragement, disillusionment and pollution of the world that swirls around it. And as in the natural world, so in the spiritual realm where the garden of our heart grows. By no easy path is the carnal man raised to life from the death of sin. Our first problem is in admitting that we harbor and relish sin. It is easy to spot it in others, but in ourselves we see it as some peculiar, perhaps even exotic, variety of plant that is really alright, thank you.

But when we examine our hearts, with the intention of knowing what is really there (and using the mirror of His perfect law), why, yes! It is full of weeds! May our prayer be: "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23, 24.

The Son of God was given to us, that by His life of untiring, unselfish labor He might teach men how they can be laborers together with Him in the building of His kingdom. He (the Word) is the seed dropped into the soil of our hearts. In accordance with the law of the vegetable kingdom, life will be the result of His death. But the seed falls into different types of soil, which produce different results. In every case the sower (Christ) and the seed (His word) are the same. By this we are taught that if His word fails to produce salvation in us, the fault lies with us. The garden of the heart must be cultivated. The soil must be broken up by deep repentance for sin. Poisonous, satanic plants must be uprooted. The soil will produce poor results if worked by impulse. It needs thoughtful, daily attention, deep and frequent plowing. "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns." Jeremiah 4:3. Scripture is replete with advice to us as heart gardeners. Look at some of the following texts, and apply them to the work of repentance necessary for sanctification.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7.

"Lazy people should go watch a colony of ants and be inspired by their diligence. No one is there to organize them or tell them what to do. They have no commander or ruler giving them daily orders. Yet they store up provisions in summer and gather their food during harvest." Proverbs 6:6-8 (The Clear Word, a Bible paraphrase)

Be fruitful, be ready, be overcomers, be His. He is coming soon to gather His harvest.

"Mary," He’ll ask, "how does your garden grow?"