My Father is the Gardener Lesson 1

I laugh at the thought of writing about gardening because I am the worst gardener. However God has recently been showing me a number of different things about how he works in my life through the metaphor of my heart as a garden that I feel are meant for sharing here.

So here is my first 'gardening lesson'! :-)

Lesson 1: A process of gentle unfurling

I want gardening to be like on those TV programmes where they send the mum away for the weekend, rip out the old garden with a JCB, stick a brand new one in and she comes home and cries with surprise and delight at the transformation.

About one or two days a year I attack our garden ruthlessly, pulling up anything I suspect of being a weed (i.e. 90% of the contents of our flowerbeds). The next morning it looks kind of bare but (comparatively speaking) amazing.  But of course it doesn't last because the enthusiastic weeds just spring straight back up again.

Similarly, I want God to 'zap' my heart in a 24 hour makeover. Just take a digger, remove wholesale all the junk. Bring in a whole new set up. Then I want to be 'sorted' and to joyfully and without struggle perfectly serve the Lord for the rest of my life. I guess in garden terms that would be producing different beautiful colourful flowers in each new season, no weeds, no maintenance required.

But gardens don't work like that. They are an ongoing process.  They are a slow, gentle unfurling and unfolding. They cannot be rushed.  A garden is never 'finished' because each day, little by little it is growing and changing. New flowers open up, new shoots appear and new weeds sprout up as well. With each new season there are different tasks (so I'm told!).

A really good gardener just does a little each week, working with nature: trimming at the right time; dead-heading at the right point; considering when a straggly plant needs to be uprooted and something new planted there.

So it is with our lives. Each day we need to yield ourselves to the Master Gardener. Let Him have his way in our lives.  Sometimes that means something that is good becomes too 'big' in our lives and needs cutting back. Sometimes, something beautiful that once flowered in our lives, has had its season and we need to submit to him removing it because only then is there space in our garden for the new thing He wants to plant.

And so Father, I submit to You as my Gardener. Help me be patient with you and with myself as I let you gently work on the ever-changing landscape of my garden-heart. Help me be content not to be 'finished'. Plant what you will. Uproot what you will. I think I want an instant makeover but I know your ways are wisest and best. May my garden-heart be a place You love to be, enjoying the beauty you are unfurling there.  Amen