more about weeds

At this time of year it is easy to understand all of the references to weeds and wheat.

Anybody who has a flower bed knows that space unoccupied by the flower or vegetable of choice will soon be filled in by the sprouts of weeds. I'm not sure where weeds come from...but they are always there. And I'm not sure what it is about them that makes them "weeds".... after all, unless it is poison ivy, these tenacious plants don't do any extreme harm to me. At worst, as they grow (and it is amazing how they seem to grow in spite of wind or drought) they may choke out the plants I deem desirable. (hmmmm, is that survival of the fittest?) I realize that the plants I establish in these beds (flowers, vegetable or ground cover) would most likely never occur naturally....it is about imposing my way, my design with results (although pleasing to me and others) that are artificial...unnatural...

Perhaps this practice of weeding flower beds or vegetable gardens is actually about our own need to judge or control. After all, those weeds seem to be invaders in my flower bed....yet just yards away in the woods around the perimeter of my property the same plants aren't weeds at all....they are groundcover performing their purpose of photosynthesis, soil regeneration, shelter and food for all of the wild critters.

Maybe it is about vanity to a degree...I think that the prize plant will be more spectacular if it is set in a plot all its own with no sprouts or twigs or thorny blooms to distract the eye.

How about me... are there aspects of my life or my being that I judge as unnecessary or as an encroachment? Do I devote inordinate amounts of time judging and trying to pluck out undesirable stuff rather than letting it be (as scripture advises)and focusing upon whatever "good" can flourish? Do I try to protect what I deem as the more desirable sproutings of ideas, or behavior and set them in a protected context rather than letting them abide wherever and however life moves them along?

Consider that God may know ways to use the weeds of weakness or undersirables for good purpose. Weeds may serve to draw your attention to a place where God is inviting you to lean upon his truth and his wisdom.

And the laborers said, "Do you want us to go and weed it out?" But he said, "No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn." Matthew 13:7-9