The Master Gardener

                                                     

 

I am anticipating a summer of BEAUTY in my backyard…. after the spring work....turning the soil to loosen it and get rid of lava rock put there by a previous owner, rock that I find as deep as I can go in turned up soil; watering the dry ground; conditioning the clay soil (hard, clumpy, poorly drained soil); digging the holes that will receive the roots of plants and bulbs.  Then after planting… more watering, fertilizing and…watching the strong dry Panhandle winds pound the fragile plants…the single digit humidity and lack of rain….High Plains weather that can erupt into powerful storms and hail...temperatures that even in May dropped to below freezing.  I'm anxiously waiting…will the harshness of nature harm the young and tender potential for beauty?  The warmer weather is here now, but the Panhandle winds have been ferocious, and I still want to diligently pour into my plants all that is needed to make them flourish.  I don’t have the foresight to know what may come…will my care be enough?  I am NOT a “Master Gardener”…..

      

But Christ IS.  How our Lord watches over us and and tenderly cares for us!  He diligently works the fallow ground of our hearts—removes the lava rock we allow to form there—pressures, wounds, circumstances, bitterness that changed our heart from something soft and moldable, burning with the heat of passion for life, to cold and broken hard rock with jagged edges that cut and scrape hands that get too close to it, and keep the fertile soil from nourishing the roots of abundant life.

 The MASTER GARDENER is always conditioning the soil of our heart…he provides the humus for us to walk in repentance and humility… that place that agrees with God about our sins, and in forgiveness washes it away to keep it from clumping up into tough clods that reveal a hardness of heart that is no longer a rich environment for new growth. Once we are planted He does not leave us or forsake us…He lovingly keeps us in HIS sight, always watering, nourishing, pruning, even transplanting if necessary.  If we see ourselves as His plantings in this world, wouldn’t we want to stay in that place which has been created and conditioned for our growth?

As I, not a master gardener, looked for annuals and perennials that would flourish in my yard, I had to keep in mind that for plants to thrive there, I must choose those plants that would like the coolness and soft light of shade.  Putting a sun-loving plant in my shady backyard is a fight against nature.  I’ve watched plants wither and die, or struggle along in weakness and malnourishment, stunted because I tried to make them grow in the wrong environment.  Our MASTER GARDENER never makes this mistake when He places us in this world, HIS garden.

He knows the environment, the circumstances, the people, and the storms that will make us BEAUTIFUL in HIS TIME and in HIS WAY.  And as He numbers our days, He makes a way for us to become…what HE intends…..the beauty and likeness of HIS SON….who yielded His life to the darkness and harshness of the world… who was made perfect in His obedience to the MASTER GARDENER…who embraced where he was planted and yielded the FRUIT of THE SPIRIT, an abundance of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness….full of Grace....who gave himself to be the GLORY of God …JESUS, the PERFECT PERENNIAL, yielding NEW LIFE year after year…age after age…producing a beautiful garden of LIVES made in His image.

I anxiously anticipate the beauty of my flowers…how much more THE MASTER GARDENER anticipates the fulfillment and beauty of His completed work in us.