By His Grace

Second Gardening Lesson

Last year, since I didn’t know what had been planted in our yard, I let everything grow in order to see what was there. The definition of a weed is something you don’t want that grows vigorously, and I discovered that the back area along the property line is full of weeds. By the end of the summer, they were above my head and covered in round burrs that hurt when they touched my skin; plus they bent over the rock path making it impossible to walk. The process of removing them was both painful and tedious. And I know I didn’t get them out at the root – only got the visible part and maybe a few inches below the soil.

 

This year, I was determined not to have a repeat performance, so early on I started digging. At first, I only pulled out what I remembered was bad from the last year, but within a month I discovered that the empty space was now filled with other weeds – not as tall or as painful to touch, but still overtaking everything else. So I’m back to digging. Apparently if you leave a patch of ground empty, something will fill it.

 

It reminds me of one of Jesus’ teachings: “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.”

 

When the Father removes sin from our lives, that space needs to be filled with his grace and peace, the fruits of the Spirit, and (as Teresa of Avila says) the flowers of virtue. Otherwise, we simply make room for more evil in our hearts.

 

So as I am digging out these new weeds and replacing them with flowering plants, I am meditating on the areas of my life that need to be filled by God. And I’m asking him to show me how I can participate in his work so that the weeds of sin can be overrun with the flowers of virtue and the fruits of the Spirit.

 

First gardening lesson - water

Last year we planted two hydrangea plants in my yard. I had come to love the big multicolored blooms when we lived in Ohio where they grow prolifically. But rather than get big, they struggled to get established, and I found out they do not grow as easily in this climate. It took daily watering to keep the leaves from drooping and they never flowered.

This year, they’re doing much better, but still seem to need a lot of water. One hot day about a month ago, I put a hose on one and left it, intending to come back and move it in an hour. Instead, I forgot and the one plant got about 4 hours of water, the other none at all. The heat literally burned the leaves of the water-deprived one leaving them brown and shriveled. A month later the watered plant is green and growing well. The other still has some brown leaves and is not as big and full.

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) describes the life of prayer as the experience of watering the garden. When we first start to pray we must learn the discipline of going to the well to draw the water. If we do not learn the importance of prayer, the flowers of virtue will never grow in our lives. We need the water of prayer, not as an end unto itself, but at a vital part of our spiritual growth.

My two hydrangeas are a physical example of this principle. The damage done to the one plant will probably take the entire season to overcome. When I fail to pray, not only do I miss the refreshment of God in the moment, I also stunt my growth over the long term. Even when life is hard, in fact most importantly when life is hard and my soul dry, I need the water of prayer to sustain me. It takes discipline to pray, just as remembering to put the hose on the plants requires my effort. But the water does something that I, myself, cannot accomplish. Prayer opens me to the work of God’s Spirit so that I might grow and produce the fragrant flowers of virtue that will glorify him.