How Does Your Garden Grow?
By Sandra Byrd
I'm excitedly preparing for our forthcoming trip to London by browsing some travel guides. As a garden enthusiast in the thrall of early spring, one fact truly fascinated me. More than 40,000 bulbs are planted each year at Buckingham Palace, and 250,000 - a full quarter of a million bulbs - at Hampton Court Palace. That's a lot of sore backs and muddy knees for Her Majesty!
These royal gardeners plant relatively nondescript bulbs that are nearly indistinguishable from one another except to those who specifically chose them for sowing. Galatians 6 tells us that we can sow to please the sinful nature or we can sow to please the Spirit. One chapter earlier Paul tells us exactly what the acts of the sinful nature are: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; enmity, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. Notice that he does not distinguish one as being more - or less - serious than the others. Then he tells us what the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. All of the latter will be present in the one who sows to the Spirit. They are fruit of the same tree.
God sometimes chooses to alter the course of the natural laws He created, but mostly, He lets the laws work as He designed them. If you drop a precious vase from a balcony it's going to drop and crash. He does not adjust the law of gravity to save us from our foolishness. If we build on sand and not on rock, the waves will wash our homes away. Likewise, if we sow to the sinful nature He promises that we will reap destruction whereas if we sow to the Spirit we will reap eternal life. Choose carefully and prayerfully. Our gardens will be on display both here and in the kingdom to come.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Galatians 6:7
{ Main photo credit: Photo by Selwyn van Haaren on Unsplash }