by: carole l. haines
As I was out watering my gardens this morning, I noticed that a bush that I had transplanted, which I thought was dead, was now growing again, but only at the very bottom of the stem. The top of the plant had completely died off, and I thought I had lost the plant, but I had to go away for three weeks this Summer, and so I just left it there. When I came out this morning to water, the top was still dead and continuing to dry up and fall away. But right at ground level, there were new shoots reaching up toward the sun. There was work being done beneath the round, within the core, that I could not see. What an amazing Spiritual reality we have in Christ. Let’s not give up on ourselves, or others too soon. God is always at work at the roots, within the core of who we are. Jesus teaches us this:
“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15 NLT)
There are so many Spiritual Truths I learn while I am tending my gardens. Perhaps this is why Jesus uses this picture so often in His teachings. Perhaps that is also why a poet once penned:
“One is nearer God’s heart in a garden, then anywhere else on earth.” (Dorothy Frances Gurney)
hisshadowings.com 