Today’s Reading: John 15: 1, 5 (NIV)
“I [Jesus] am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener…I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
On Monday, I was in New Orleans for a mission trip (hurricane reconstruction) with Green Room Campus Ministries. Monday was our first work day. My group was assigned to do some “general cleaning” in the backyard of a house. When we arrived on-site, I was stunned! The yard was a MESS!!! There were broken pots and piles of dog poop everywhere; vines hanging every which way. Dead tall grass, weeds, and trash covered the yard! I was not sure if it was truly going to be a one-day job!
I had a rake in my hands for nearly the entire day. As we headed into the afternoon, I began raking the second half of the yard – which was FAR WORSE than the first half! About two minutes into the process, I was already breaking a sweat. The LAYERS of weeds and dead vines were hard to get through. At one point in time, I actually got caught in the “rakeage,” and I nearly fell over! :-)
As I worked to get my feet untangled from the mess, I could not help but think about how God, in the above Scripture, says that He is the Gardener. I began to wonder if, sometimes, we may need to be caught in His love to grasp how our own spiritual yards call for attention! Spend a little time with the Gardener today. Let the Gardener show you where your life needs to be cleaned and pruned so that you may have a beautiful life that reflects the caring touch of God! God loves you and He cares about your wellbeing…and while He accepts you wherever you are and wherever you have been, He doesn’t want you to stay that way! He wants to change you. He wants to trim you to be the best person (branch) you can be…and you cannot do that alone!
Once we realize that we need to be cleaned, we may be stunned, just as I was looking at that yard in N.O. The cleaning process may take some time – a yard well kept wouldn’t have taken the whole “Clubs and Spades Group” an entire day to rake and clean! BUT…through patience and trust in the Gardener, any yard can be made beautiful!
Give the Gardener a chance to catch you in His love and help you realize that we are all broken people living in a broken world…but there is hope that, with time, we can ALL be good-lookin’ yards!
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