Spring 2023 has sprung in Broken Arrow, OK

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Thrive


I mentioned in the blog last Friday (5/11/12“It’s A Beautiful Morning!”) about the time that I spent working in the garden cleaning up the old plants and planting the new ones.  It is amazing how a little care and a few shovels of fresh, nutrient soil can change the life pattern of a plant.  Two of the older plants that I tended to were an artichoke that had produced quite prolifically last year but seemed to have gone through the winter looking worse for the wear and a rather decrepit looking rosemary bush.

I trimmed off all the dead and/or sickly looking growth on the artichoke, raked away any fallen leaves and other debris from around its stem, added a fresh layer of the new garden soil and then turned it under around the plant.  The rosemary bush wasn’t quite as simple!  It had outgrown the pot it was planted in and no amount of water and fertilizer could pull it out of the throws of death.  This plant needed more drastic measures.  Therefore I removed the plant from the pot and proceeded to chop away at the entanglement of roots.  From there I dug a hole in the garden area near the artichoke, filled it with the good soil and tenderly inserted the needy herb bush.

What was truly amazing was the transition that the two plants made overnight.  When I went out the very next morning I was almost shocked to see both plants standing upright and tall, looking healthy, well nourished and ready to produce a harvest!  While I expected the plants to make a turnaround (well… I wasn’t real sure about the rosemary!), I did not expect it to happen overnight!  Today, some five days later, the plants are thriving and even the tiny little artichoke fruit that was struggling previously on the withered plant has begun to enlarge and show signs that it will make its date at our dinner table in a week or so!

Yesterday I compared a good garden soil to the ground of God’s love (See; Ephesians 3:17 in the God’s Word translation).  His soil is rich with mercy, healing and goodness. (Ephesians 2:4) Like my results in the garden, God’s soil has the ability to transform a dry, unhealthy and decrepit looking life (physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally) into that of a  strong, well nourished and productive individual.  And while the results may not be completed overnight, the person who plants themselves deep into God’s love will definitely notice an instant difference that will compel and empower them to move on in the enrichment of His ways.

Yes it might take some work.  It might take some “pruning away” of the old growth and some necessary thinning of any roots that have become impacted in the old hard soil of your former way of life.  But again, the expected results and the gains that the new soil provides are well worth the toil and any discomfort that accompanies the process of change.  You know… you just can help but prosper in the garden of God’s love when you have the best gardener in the universe tending to your every need!

Have a super Tuesday.  Stay in tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today!?”

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