Weeds, You Can't Live With Them and You Can't Live Without Them.

"A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows."


- Doug Larson
 
I haven't posted for awhile, life, and weeds of all kinds have been filling my days.  Several weeks ago, in just three days time, I pulled 700 pounds of weeds from my flower beds!  I know their weight because the  quantity of weeds were far in excess of the capacity of my two lowly compost bins and had to be brought to the dump. At the dump they were weighed and apparently were assessed as very valuable because I had to pay the dump a great sum of money to store them. 
 
Weeds are insidious, invasive, pervasive, life-sucking pests that were put here by God when Adam and Eve sinned, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food." Genesis 3: 17-19. So it would seem, we will never see the end of weeds.
 

The weeds in my little piece of earth that cause me the most problems either have the word, "creeping" in front of it or at least start with the letter C.  The weed above is a creeping buttercup and its delightful trick is to spray seeds in your eyes and in all directions when given a tug (note: Can you find the blueberry bush in the above photo?). I also have weeds named: Creeping oxalis, creeping charlie, cat's ear and chickweed, to name a few.
 
 

Anyone see a euphorbia or a blanket flower anywhere?

After some weeding a Euphorbia appears.

 

Weeds will choke the life and light from a plant in every conceivable way.  A good gardener will always be in the garden weeding.When the weed eradication effort started this spring, I was in a dismal mood, seriously re-thinking whether I really wanted to pursue the "pleasures" of gardening. 

 

Sure there were quite a few earthworms showing me how improved my soil was, but the sheer task of even making a dent in the wilds of my back yard was daunting and my body was fighting the exercise needed for the job at every turn.  If you have ever observed how a giraffe drinks water, you can picture how I weed.  I have two bum knees and since I'm fairly flexible in my weeding muscles, I just assume giraffe position, bend down and pick weeds upside down.  After awhile my head throbs, my back hurts and my hands go numb.

 

However, something happens to me when the weeds are tamed to a reasonable few, and the wanted plants are visible once more...I get that craving, that gnawing in my soul to be a part of God's spring renewal and I plant even more flowers, prune back old wood, weed more weeds, fertilize, bait slugs, and generally proclaim war on anything that threatens my beautiful plants. I am hooked once more. A gardeners life for me.

Its hard for me to weed without seeing a metaphor underneath my head.  The sin in my life is so like the weeds I hate.  They are insidious and will find every possible way to claim the rich soil in my heart as theirs.  I pulled 700 pounds of weeds in three days time. If my own sins were weighed, the back of our little truck wouldn't be able to get mine to the dump.  I keep pulling up one kind of sin and seeds of others pop out in all directions.  Some of my sins have such a spreading root system that it looks like there will never be a way cleanse my soul. But that is the good news!  Jesus already has done that for me.  Yes, there will always be weeds, but thanks to what Jesus did on the cross, I will always be forgiven, and there will always be a way to get rid of the weeds and grow a healthier heart. I can be a sweet smelling flower if I do enough weeding, and I am one thankful gardener for the opportunity.

"The year's at the spring,

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hill-side's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in his Heaven—

All's right with the world!"

- Robert Browning, The Year's at the Spring