This morning I was doing the most tedious part of
what should later be so pleasing: weeding our garden in order to begin
preparing it for spring planting. I delight
in pouring in fresh new soil into the garden at the start of each new
season. My kids and I all take joy in
seeding carrots and planting new starts of broccoli, lettuce, peppers, onion,
and – our favorite – strawberries. Most
of all, we love harvesting it. When the
fruit and vegetables come in and we get to make complete salads from our own
garden, mmmm! Delicious! And so
rewarding!
But none of that comes without the pre-planting
weeding. Ugh. The stubborn nuisances I fought
this morning kept refusing to be pulled by their roots, so I spent a good
portion of the morning working at it, but barely made a dent in the garden. Still, persist I will, for I know the future
return will be worth it.
While gardening, I was reminded of a whisper that
came to me only a few weeks ago. The whisper
said that we humans are to learn from the plant who has one and only one
mission in life: to touch the sun. As
gardeners, we should encourage plants, as if we’re cheerleaders, to root them
on for their one mission, as it does help them grow. The gardener may be rooting on the plant to
grow big strawberries, but the plant only hears encouragement for its only
mission to touch the sun. It doesn’t
occur to the plant that any other purpose in life exists, so if it hears
encouragement, the encouragement, naturally, is for its one mission. It doesn’t even know it’s growing
strawberries. That’s merely a side
benefit for the gardener.
The gardener might get too focused on the fruit and
forget the Light. In that case, the fruit
is no longer meaningful. When we are
bearing fruit and doing good deeds, Jesus tells us “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”
(Matt 6:3). Even better, like the plant,
we won’t even know we’re bearing fruit!
The plant, says the whisper, has a small degree of
intelligence: just enough to know its one goal in life, but not enough to know
its goal would be physically impossible.
We humans are to be like the plant: to seek only to touch the Light and
not even notice if we are also growing fruit.
We humans are too focused on the fruit.
But if we’re like a plant that doesn’t even know it’s growing fruit and
cares only to touch the Light, then we will be blessed with all.
“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these
things will be added to you”
(Matt 6:33).
©
2013 by Karina Jacobson. All rights reserved. Please use
only with permission from the author.
