Weed.
Ahem...Now that I have your attention...#clickbate
Gardening takes me to sacred moments of deep thought. It's not often I get to do either, but when I find myself with dirt under my nails and worms on my toes...I know I'm in a sweet spot. I like to work without gloves on so I can feel the earth. I like to take my precious time searching the root to pull or to nourish. Clarity comes with carefulness.
It's here that God spoke to me the other day. I simply wanted to use a nap time to plant a couple of rose bushes. Nothing huge. Nothing crazy. Nap time doable. As I started with my digger, I realized I was in for more than I planned. Crab grass. The bane of my exposed fingertips. The weed that I turned a blind eye to somehow overtook an entire section of my yard. And then I heard a sweet voice. "Look at the roots." They were hard. Thorny. They move sideways and intertwine rather than digging deep. I began to pull and loosen, cursing my tender skin with each tug. But as I grabbed, it all came out of the ground like a rope buried in the sand. I followed it's lead as if there was a treasure at the end. Oh and there was.
I looked at the time and realized I had been out there for an hour and a half. I'd cleared the size of the bottom of a barrel. I took one glance at the rest of the strip of land, now clearly nothing but the sneaky weed, and I began to weep. I felt like I hadn't accomplished anything.
Here's the good stuff. Sitting down, looking at the mound of this unwanted guest that I had yanked with my bare, now bleeding, hands...I was feeling so powerful. So accomplished. I worked incredibly hard and it felt amazing. Looking beyond my work, I lost sight of my goals. I felt silly for thinking I had done anything of merit. I wanted to pack up and just be done.
I've heard a million times "Hindsight is 20/20". I never stopped to realize what a gift that is. Hindsight wasn't just a blip in our creation. It was purposeful. God GAVE us long term memory. Wouldn't it also be true that it was not a mistake for us not to see and know our future? When I looked at my work and saw what I had accomplished I wanted to keep going. Press forward. I felt good about my labor. One look at what was ahead stopped me in my tracks. I thank God for knowing our hearts well enough to give us hindsight and not precognition.
Women Camp was a vision of 500 women...sitting down, literal hands in the dirt, and pulling up the thorny invaders. Carefully, confidently, we took what looked real and replaced it with fields of wildflowers stretching gracefully toward the sky. Sweet flowers that nourish the earth instead of steal from it. Hands up. Hearts fully exposed. We stood, knelt, sat, and slept on sacred ground. We came to this place with ideas of what we wanted to have. We left that holy trail filled with what God is doing. He is moving and we are vessels. We are His beloved daughters in whom He is well pleased.
Gardening takes me to sacred moments of deep thought. It's not often I get to do either, but when I find myself with dirt under my nails and worms on my toes...I know I'm in a sweet spot. I like to work without gloves on so I can feel the earth. I like to take my precious time searching the root to pull or to nourish. Clarity comes with carefulness.
It's here that God spoke to me the other day. I simply wanted to use a nap time to plant a couple of rose bushes. Nothing huge. Nothing crazy. Nap time doable. As I started with my digger, I realized I was in for more than I planned. Crab grass. The bane of my exposed fingertips. The weed that I turned a blind eye to somehow overtook an entire section of my yard. And then I heard a sweet voice. "Look at the roots." They were hard. Thorny. They move sideways and intertwine rather than digging deep. I began to pull and loosen, cursing my tender skin with each tug. But as I grabbed, it all came out of the ground like a rope buried in the sand. I followed it's lead as if there was a treasure at the end. Oh and there was.
I looked at the time and realized I had been out there for an hour and a half. I'd cleared the size of the bottom of a barrel. I took one glance at the rest of the strip of land, now clearly nothing but the sneaky weed, and I began to weep. I felt like I hadn't accomplished anything.
Here's the good stuff. Sitting down, looking at the mound of this unwanted guest that I had yanked with my bare, now bleeding, hands...I was feeling so powerful. So accomplished. I worked incredibly hard and it felt amazing. Looking beyond my work, I lost sight of my goals. I felt silly for thinking I had done anything of merit. I wanted to pack up and just be done.
I've heard a million times "Hindsight is 20/20". I never stopped to realize what a gift that is. Hindsight wasn't just a blip in our creation. It was purposeful. God GAVE us long term memory. Wouldn't it also be true that it was not a mistake for us not to see and know our future? When I looked at my work and saw what I had accomplished I wanted to keep going. Press forward. I felt good about my labor. One look at what was ahead stopped me in my tracks. I thank God for knowing our hearts well enough to give us hindsight and not precognition.
Women Camp was a vision of 500 women...sitting down, literal hands in the dirt, and pulling up the thorny invaders. Carefully, confidently, we took what looked real and replaced it with fields of wildflowers stretching gracefully toward the sky. Sweet flowers that nourish the earth instead of steal from it. Hands up. Hearts fully exposed. We stood, knelt, sat, and slept on sacred ground. We came to this place with ideas of what we wanted to have. We left that holy trail filled with what God is doing. He is moving and we are vessels. We are His beloved daughters in whom He is well pleased.
Comments
Post a Comment