GARDENER

When I moved to my new house, I was pleased to see all the beautiful citrus trees and cacti in our yard, and roses! There were two fairly nice looking rose bushes, trimmed up so they looked like miniature trees with a skinny trunk, one with deep red roses in the front yard, and a delicate yellow one in the back. There had been a third one, which was now just dead branches jutting up out of the dry ground, thorns exposed along the rough, woody branches. I knew the yard needed some work, and I would have to dig out the dead rose bush, but I generally enjoyed working in the yard, pruning, trimming, and tidying up the grounds. Well, one thing led to another, and the plants were neglected. Next thing I knew, the rose bushes were looking very sad. They stopped blooming, even though I had at least made sure the dead blooms were always removed. Then the leaves began withering and turning brown. Upon closer inspection I saw tiny spider webs all over the bushes. Thanks to a very kind neighbor, I learned about a home remedy for spiders on roses and quickly mixed together the ingredients and sprayed the leaves well and waited, hoping I had gotten good advice and had done everything correctly and timely. Each day I stepped outside with anticipation of something positive, but instead was greeted with increasingly brown leaves. I would remove those that were dried up and without hope, striving to help the beleaguered plant. But nothing I did seemed to help. I was beginning to accept the possibility that I would have at least one more thorny rose bush to dig up!

Then the monsoon season arrived.... days upon days of showers, and downpours, and sprinkles, broken up by only a few humid, hot days. And every day I would look at that dying mass of thorny branches and browning leaves with pessimism. But then one day I saw it – little tiny green sprouts everywhere! Almost every branch had new growth bursting through the dried, cracked stems. Within a week there were tiny rose buds, much smaller this time, but just as velvety as before. And another miracle - the one bush that was supposedly dead when we had arrived... even that had sprouted new living branches, straining toward the sun!

God had shown me once again that all my efforts, while perhaps helpful to a situation, are never enough on their own. He has to be involved for the actions to bear fruit. He gives me the ability to be his helper. Then He uses me as his tool. Pruning (cutting back what looks good) and dead-heading (removing what is no longer alive) are needed so that new growth can occur.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful... Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” John 15: 1-2, 4 NIV

But without the “living water” nothing would come of all this work.
Jesus said (to the Samaritan woman at the well), “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10 NIV

God uses us in other people's lives, but it is He who gives eternal life, through his son, Jesus Christ.

Thank you, Lord, for being my gardener, and for using me to grow your kingdom! Amen

Written by Jan A.