I did an unexpected thing today. I have a garden bed on the side of my house that has received little to no attention since May. It is now October. For some reason, I thought I should take a peek at it when I got home from the grocery store. I assumed there would be a lot of weeds poking up through the mulch, so as I was walking around the house I had already decided to do a little maintenance tomorrow before the weeds grew out of control.
Too late. Way too late. I was shocked. The garden bed had become a tropical rain forest. There were 7-8 ft trees with huge leaves that could have clothed Adam and Eve for a year. The stalks, or trunks, of these monstrous weeds were about 3 inches in diameter, and whatever bushes or flowers that my husband had once planted were completely hidden if they were even alive anymore.
How could I have let this happen?! Everything looked great in the spring. Mulch had been spread, all weeds and clover were gone, and I had planned on planting some easy-care flowers and shrubs.
I leaned over and pulled out a few blades of overgrown grass in the front of the bed, and they easily came out with the roots. Hmm…not bad. I pulled out a few more. At least I could neaten up the front and then ask a friend to help with the wild trees. I got some hedge clippers from the garage and chopped a few manageable branches. I wouldn’t do too much. Snakes could be lurking and ready to chomp me.
I kept chopping and yanking, chopping and yanking. Okay, I can do a bit more. I got the shovel and tried to dig up the root of one of the trees. It actually started to give, so I kept pulling. Yikes! The root was coming out, but instead of being a complex network of many roots, it was one huge root that was about 4 ft. long! It felt so good to get that thing out that I started on another tree. If I had known I was going to be performing surgery in the garden I would have taken before pictures.
After a couple of hours, I finally got all the weeds and trees cleared out. Then there, in the corner, all by itself, was a lone, large, deep red rose at the top of a very tall stalk. It had received very little sunlight all summer, no nurturing, no watering except for an occasional light rainfall, yet out of the darkness and choking weeds, the original thing of beauty continued to grow. It was still there, waiting to be found. All I had to do was rediscover it.
How many of us forget to tend our dreams and our original purpose before we allow the weeds of life to cover them up? The weeds get so thick, and the roots go so deep that we forget the beauty and intent that was put within us in the first place. If God planted the seed, the plant is still there, but we let the size of the weeds scare us away. We talk ourselves out of uncovering our gifts and remembering who we are.
Life is hard. Life can be harsh. Life certainly has unexpected events that cause us to divert our focus for a time. But we can also expect to find the treasure God planted within us when we take a deep breath, get the shovel, and dig out the weeds.
Dance on.
Grace Notes 