In the Garden.

My brothers and I went to work this week. We have amazing jobs, working for this excellent friend of ours at church. On Fridays, she has us come to her house. I am the "maid", so I work inside most of the time. My brothers, being the strapping, strong guys that they are, work outside.
Last week, she asked us all to work outside and help her with her garden. Our friend has a beautiful house on a beautiful piece of land, and one of my favorite things about her home is her beautifully tended garden.
That week she'd ordered a load of mulch and a load of dirt to be delivered to her home, and she asked my brothers and I to come, and to help her dig out all of the rocks and weeds that were underneath her garden and then to put new dirt on top, and new mulch on top of that.
So, we went to work on Friday morning.
It was a beautiful day outside... about seventy degrees. It was sunny, bright, and beautiful. Perfect for working outside.
So, for about three and a half straight hours, we worked. My brothers were responsible for loading the dirt and bringing it to us, and the boss and I took turns working the huge rocks and weeds out of the ground. It was a lot harder swinging a pick ax for three hours than I thought it would be.
My boss and I were talking and she told me that gardening, to her, was relaxing. She loved to go outside and work in her garden, because it gave her peace and it calmed her spirit. I thought that was pretty neat and responded by telling her that doing the dishes is what did it for me.
She then said "It also has many spiritual applications," and she commenced in telling me about all the spiritual lessons to be learned from such a simple task: gardening.
Christ's death has made us beautiful. We flourish and bloom because of what He has done for us. He feeds us daily and shines upon us, and we grow in Him because of His tender care. Because of His care, we can tend to ourselves, by staying faithful and continually drinking from His word. But when we neglect Him... and when we don't "tend" to our struggles, that is when the weeds come in and choke us. The deep roots steal the water and nutrition we need to grow and the rocks choke us out. That's when we start to wither and perish.
It is only when we let Christ tend to us, like we were all tending to her garden... that's when we truly see the growth. And that is why we need Him most... to keep out the sin, and to guide us as we flourish. To become beautiful, because He makes us beautiful.