Weeds of Curiosity

I love flower gardens, but the excruciating heat of Florida proves to be an obstacle in keeping one alive. So, this season I opted to rip out the entire flower bed in my front lawn, deep mulch it and use containers to create a different foliage feel. I hoped that the mulch would ward off weeds and the containers allow me easier access to care more for each plant (I also added two bird feeders for my own enjoyment). At the end of it all, I found that even deep mulch can’t keep out persistent weeds, and containers need a lot more watering.

I also discovered that birds are inadvertent gardners. Due to their messy eating habits, my mulched areas were showered with bits of their seed food and began popping up all sorts of plants. One of these I recognized straightaway: sunflowers.

They’re glorious—not the modified ones that you find at the nursery, but wild ones. So, instead of just one big head, each stalk has multiple flowers. In fact, at one point, my largest stalk had thirteen flowers growing on it! It was magical. However, alongside the sunflowers were some other unknown plants. They too were tall, like the sunflowers, and grew a rather large seed head on top. My immediate reaction was to pull them, but curiosity trumped instinct. I let them linger.

At 6:30 a.m. a few mornings ago, I decided it was time for me to tackle some serious garden maintenance, figuring that at this time of day I could get more done before the long shadows disappeared and were replaced by blistering sun rays. I grabbed my gloves, scooped up my tools and set about the serious business of pruning and weeding.

At this time of day in nature, I often find myself drawn into intimacy with God. Personally, I love the times when He allows me to bask in His peace, breathing in His likeness reflected in the wilderness of my lawn. As I settled into the peace this morning, however, I kept finding myself turned by a small distraction: the unknown plant.

I thought, “That is grass, pull it up.”
But would then reply (to myself), “But I wanna see what happens.”

This went on for more minutes than you care to hear.

Finally, after I had finished the bulk of the weed work, I took one last look at the unknown plant to decide it’s fate.
This time, I felt the Holy Spirit say, “It’s a grass. Pull it up.”
I thought back, “But I’m curious. It’s about to open.”
He said, “Yes it is. And you will have grass seeds all over. You will have to bear the consequence.”
I said, “ What if is not a grass? Maybe it will by pretty.”
He persisted, “Don’t wait. Pull it!”

I pulled it.

At this point, things took a turn. He began to show me areas of my life where I have been allowing curiosity to encourage unknown things to grow. He nailed me, in particular, on some T.V. shows I’ve kept coming up with justifications for watching; the “seed head” of which was growing in my soul and would soon burst, spreading consequences across my life. Allowing myself to be inundated with an assault of curse words and sexual content was causing me to section off areas that I prefered God not to see.

This tete-a-tete between the Holy Spirit and myself was not a shame fest, but rather Love illuminating me to a barrier between Him and me.

His goal with me has always been intimacy; the enemy’s: shameful hiding.

Now, with the giants seed heads pulled out of my container garden (and my heart), I stand a much better chance of keeping the weeds to a minimum. As they pop up, I can deal with them, as long I am consistent with taking care of them each morning, watering (time with Jesus) the containers as well as checking to see if there are any invaders(sins) that have taken a foothold in the soil. It will take diligence. But the reward will be breathtaking.