Planting flowers

Everyone loves a pretty garden, right? One that looks loved, and looked after, and full of greenery and colour. I get that some people hate spending time in gardens because of their allergies (grass, pollen, bees, etc.), but who doesn’t at least appreciate looking out of their window and seeing beauty like that?

With the drought of last year, and the increasing dryness over the past 3-4 years, my garden has slowly been dying. Sadly, my attempts at quick fixes have made things worse - my grass now looks less like a lawn and more like a few strands of grass with lots of bare ground. Being someone who has always taken pride in growing things, and who loves nothing more than spending time in a beautiful, green space, this slow death of my garden has caused a concomitant death in my soul. It got so bad I wanted to keep the curtains closed, so I would have to look at it. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Earlier this year, though, as I stood contemplating the disaster of my garden, and feeling thoroughly depressed that I would ever have the type of garden I wanted, I felt God speak to me about it.

“What do you really want out of this garden?”
“I want to look out and see something that invites me to spend time in it, something that looks beautiful, something pretty.”
“If you want flowers, you have to plant flowers.”

That made me think. As a gardener, you have to plan in advance. If you want spring flowers, you have to plant bulbs in winter. If you want more fruit off your trees in summer, you have to prune them in autumn. When you plant something, you have to picture it as a fully-grown plant, to ensure that the spot you choose will have enough space for it to grow into. You are constantly thinking ahead and planning for the future. It takes time, effort, and seeing the big picture.

As a gardener, you are also constantly battling the forces that would seek to destroy your beautiful creation - pests, diseases, weeds, overgrowth, climate. That too takes persistent work. You can’t take a holiday from caring for your garden, because then something will get a foothold and before you can say “make lemonade from lemons”, all your hard work has been undone.

If I want a beautiful garden, I can’t give up. I can’t hide behind my curtains and pretend the garden doesn’t exist. If I want a beautiful garden, I have to put the time in. I have to plant the bulbs that will give me the spring flowers. I have to mow the lawn every week or so so that the grass is encouraged to grow horizontally to fill the gaps (rather than vertically). I have to turn the soil to improve aeration (my garden sits on koffieklip, so one rain and my plants are growing in rock again). I have to add fertilizers regularly to improve the nutrient quality of the soil (I have a layer of sand on the koffieklip) so that things actually grow. I also have to choose my plants more wisely - choosing fynbos over tropical beauties, because they are better adapted for my garden conditions (which will save me money in the long run). As I contemplated all this, God took it a level deeper though.

“What do you really want out of your life?”
“I want to know Your thoughts, to hear You speaking to me, and through me so that I can speak into the lives of those around me, to draw them to You. I want a life of significance.”
“You want the flowers.”
“I do.”
“Then you have to plant flowers.”

Wham! That hit me right between the eyes. If I want to know God more, then I have to spend time with him. I have to plan to create times and spaces to meet with him. I have to put in the time and effort. I also have to actively spend time dealing with the spiritual pests, diseases, weeds and other things that would seek to distract me (at best) and tear me away from God (at worst). If I want the spiritual rewards, then I have to sow the spiritual seeds, plant the spiritual bulbs, and plant the spiritual flowers. I can’t give up when things get tough - like with gardening, it’s when things are difficult that my plants need me most to protect them and provide for them. When things get spiritually difficult, that’s when I most need to lean in, to press into the spiritual disciplines even more.

I have been living with this since the beginning of the year, and I won’t say I’ve got it waxed, because I don’t. But I can say that I am moving in the right direction. Eugene Petersen (one of the modern-day giants in Christendom) wrote a book entitled “A long obedience in the same direction”, about living the Christian life in our modern world. This is what it is about. We live in an instant society, but real life isn’t lived instantly. Real life is a long, slow journey, and as Christians we are constantly heading in the same direction - becoming more like Jesus.

So, my motto for the year is that if you want flowers, you’ve got to plant flowers.

Things I have learnt from gardening

After more than a month I got back to my garden and spent the morning weeding the front garden. I cleared a black bag's worth of weeds from a patch about 6m square. 

Apart from the terrible aches I have today (& no doubt tomorrow will be worse) I was reminded of something: weeds will always grow where you are not actively engaged in removing them. This is true of our lives as well as my garden. They start small - the white lies, the personal photocopying, breaking the speed limit because you're late. Unhindered though, the small weeds will grow, until the beauty of the garden is obscured and sometimes destroyed.

Just as I will trim back the wild growth, and kill plants I consider weeds, so too God will work in the garden of my soul - point out the weeds, prune the parts growing out of prompt ion, so the beauty of my soul can shine. It hurts, but it is necessary if I am to have a beautiful garden.

The other thing I was reminded of is that the gardener has a grand design in his or her head that may take years to come to fruition. I planted a few trees that will take about 20 years to reach the height and shape I want, so that I can then remove an alien tree that I don't want. I am also planning a pool in the back garden. Every decision I make about planting is guided by the grand plan for 20 years hence. So the garden doesn't look as stunning as I would like, but that's because I am careful about what I plant where, knowing that in a few years I am going to pull something else out. It struck me that, in the same way, God has a plan for my life and maybe some of the things he is doing now don't make sense, because I don't see the big plan - the future plan.

Gardening is good for the soul, and body.... But maybe I will regret it tomorrow when I have to toll out if bed! ;)