I love digging, planting, cutting and trimming. I love grass and trees and flowers and shrubs. Gardening is fun. There is something magical about the practice of this age-old discipline. It’s what we humans were made by God to be, you know…garden-tenders.
Not that I work in the great outdoors nearly enough. My little backyard farm is always in need of some TLC. But I do just really enjoy what I get to do.
A couple of years ago, very shortly after my arrival at SOTH, I was helping a team of volunteers cut, weed, trim and just generally show some horticultural love to the old home place on our church’s property that we call “The Ranch.”
El Rancho SOTH is home to our youth SS class, our offices, conference room, clothes closet for foster families and just about anything else that we can think about squeezing into it.
On that workday two years ago, I came across a ragged sweetgum tree that had pushed its way through the earth near an old power pole. Having worked its way up to about 8 feet in height, it jammed odd branches through an abandoned trellis, which had been fastened to the pole with now-rusty nails.
I began limbing off the lowest branches, creating more of a trunk while disengaging tree from trellis. Finally, I noticed a twisted, dying vine, which seemed to spring from the base of the pole itself.
“Gone,” I thought. What a shame. I wondered what the long-absent planter of the vine had intended to grow in that place. With a quick chop of my pruners, I cut the old vine to the ground.
Subsequent seasons have been witness to an amazing turn of events.
Last spring, the sweetgum leafed out like never before. It added several feet of height during the summer and now stands straight, true and strong. The cut places have healed, and the tree is better for the pruning.
The old dead vine sprouted vigorous, green growth last year. It shot out tendrils, and began climbing its way up the old pole. By summer’s end, I had trained it back up the trellis, green and healthy.
This spring, it’s putting on a show. The vine turned out to be a clematis, well-loved in the South for its showy purple flowers. At this moment, the old trellis is hidden by green, leafy vine and spiky, purple blooms cover it from top to bottom.
That’s some green thumb I’ve got, huh?
No way. I was just cutting down a dead and unsightly plant. Little did I know the energy and possibility my role of accidental gardener would infuse.
The Bible is full of these kinds of images. Once, the Corinthian Christians were fighting over “whose people” they were. Some loved the Apostle Paul and pledged allegiance to him. Some loved a man named Apollos, a great and charismatic speaker. These early Christians began to fight amongst themselves.
Paul said: (I Corinthians 3:5-9)
“Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God's field in which we are working.
Who made possible the beautiful cleamatis vine which flowers at The Ranch this morning? The gardener who planted it in the hope of flowers to come? The preacher who cut it down when all hope of flowers seemed lost?
Neither.
God made it grow.
If only we could learn the lesson of the sweetgum…the parable of the clematis vine.
God makes it grow.
That’s a hard lesson. Sometimes it seems like God couldn’t do it without us, doesn’t it? What if we didn’t work, and strive and struggle? What if we didn’t prune and plant and fertilize? What if we all took a permanent vacation?
God couldn’t do it without us? Don’t give in to that illusion. Don’t fool yourself.
What if God stopped sustaining? What if God stopped creating? Even our own effort is only made possible by God’s love and light.
Does God need us? No. Does he want us? Absolutely.
This day, no matter what comes, remember that we are privileged to serve as wanted co-laborers in the vineyard. “Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving.”
Today’s cuts yield tomorrow’s flowers. The God we serve is at work all around us.
Grace and Peace,
Adam
LIFE AT SOTH:
Our new co-effort with MUST Ministries, a summer lunch program for kids in need in
Bill Clary will perform two magic shows for kids of all ages at SOTH tomorrow, Saturday May 12! Shows at 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM. Tickets available at the door: $10 for adults and $5 for kids. All proceeds benefit the summer lunch program.
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