After painting for a while that day, I hopped into my garden. Similar to how I can't design a room until I sit in it for a while, when I first get in the garden I don't fully see what needs to happen. Once my hands start moving my eyes begin to see the little details of things that need to be pulled or cut back or moved to make a more pleasant aesthetic or a healthier environment.
I began by untangling the morning glories from my hydrangea bushes, cat mint and lilac trees. I had no idea how much of the plant was covered and strangled by the morning glory weed until I started to pull it off. It had grown over the top of the plants, and while it had pretty lavender blooms, it was literally killing the plants I valued most.
The sun was hot and I had sweat dripping off the tip of my nose. I started off calmly, slowly, untangling, but once I realized how much of this invasive, disruptive, life sucking weed had taken over, I began ripping it out in handfuls. I didn't realize how big it was, how much there was of it, until I started doing the work. I was frantic, pulling, ripping and detangling. As I got my hydrangea bush free I realized how much sunlight it had been losing because of the weed that had covered the top. I began to get angry. I felt violated! How dare this weed find it's way to my garden and think it could just take over!
I did the same thing to the entire garden until it was weed free. When I was finished, I hopped in the pool to cool off and began floating on my swan. It was then that I noticed that there were a ton of dead branches on my lilac tree. How had I not noticed that before? I jumped out of the pool, grabbed the clippers and began clipping all of the dead branches. "How long have these been dead?" I wondered. Once I started clipping, again, I realized how many there were. Dead branches just like weeds take life and nutrients away from the living plant.
When I was all finished I laid on my swan and took in the beauty of my weeded and pruned garden. The hydrangeas were basking in the full sun. I began to imagine how beautifully they would bloom next summer. I admired the perennials that I had forgotten I had because they'd been covered in the unwanted vine. My lilac tree now had a beautiful shape with all the dead branches gone.
It was then that I realized something. If I didn't pull the morning glories up from their roots (which I hadn't) then they would be coming back next year, and the year after that. I'd be pulling up that same damn weed every year for the rest my life. However, if I found their roots, I could yank it up now and be done with it forever.
That's when it hit me. My husband and I have been very vocal about how hard life and marriage have been since we had a baby. Literally, weeds had been climbing up the most beautiful, prized, and precious parts of our lives and relationship for years. By the time we had a baby the weeds had completely taken over. They were blocking our sunlight, stealing our nutrients, and weighing us down so we couldn't grow.
I began thinking about all of the things in my life that tangle me up, steal my life, and block the light. They are things I keep ripping the tops off of or unwinding myself from but inevitably they always grow back. I heard God's voice reminding me that the only way to get rid of them is to get at the root.
What are the unwanted things in your life that keep growing large and taking over? What are the things that look really pretty at first, like the morning glory blooms, but upon closer inspection are brutal and deadly to the most precious and prized parts of your life? What weeds are growing bigger and taking over and destroying beauty in the garden of your life?
I have shared a bit about my marriage journey and I plan to share more at some point but for now I want to share the ministry that has helped me more than any other. It's called Freedom in Christ Ministries and they are professional root weeders. Actually, Jesus is the professional root weeder, but the wonderful people who work at this Ministry facilitate the work of the Master Gardener. They sit down with you, invite God's presence, and watch Him do the work. The beautiful thing about the Master Gardener is that through the process, He gets your soil primed so that when he discovers a weed he plucks it up and the whole thing gently but efficiently comes right out of the ground, roots and all, and it's done. It's over! The sunlight and nutrients return and you begin to bloom again.
Thank you Lord for the roots you have already identified and removed in my life. I ask you to continue Your gardening work in my life.
Amen
KSW
For more information about Freedom In Christ Ministries visit https://ficm.org/
