I love well kept gardens. Doesn't matter if its a flower bed, or a small garden for food, or one of those intricate Japanese gardens, a well kept garden is just beautiful.   Like some of the amazing beauty at the Memphis Botanic Gardens that many of us got to see recently. A good garden can be either food for the body, or food for the soul, or sometimes both. I really admire the good gardener, who's patience and wisdom and work bring so much benefit to so many, all from some seeds and water, and dirt. 

       Our Good Gardener does the same thing for our hearts, He brings Glorious Beauty out of our lives and spiritual food for others, and all praise belongs to Him. He provides the seed (His Word) and water (His Spirit) and even has a specific, beautiful, perfect plan for each of us. But that isn't what I want to focus on today.  Today I need to talk about dirt. 

Good plants, beautiful fruitful plants, don't just need seeds and water to grown, they need some good dirt too. 

Now  I can't do anything about the seed or water or the gardening plan for my life (heart) , but I do have a hand in the quality of my dirt. Or rather, by His Grace I get to be involved in the "good soil" process that He has planned for me. 

       Before we move on, it may be wise to pause here and consider. Dirt ain't got NO IDEA what the gardener is doing. All it knows is that somebody is yanking weeds out, digging down into it and pulling out or breaking up rocks, sometimes killing stuff it loves and is used to like that thorn bush that has been there so long, digging and plowing and just messing everything up. I mean, did the Gardener just dump a bunch of .....fertilizer...on me??  Are you kidding? 

But Dirt is stupid and can't see the end from the beginning like God can.  He plans on us being fruitful and beautiful and He knows we have to be "good soil" for that to happen. Jesus put it this way when He was talking about our hearts and how fruitful we may or may not be... 

 " Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

Matthew 13:1-23

Later he explains that the rocky soil has "no root" so when trouble or persecution comes, the person "falls quickly away".  And people with "thorns" or lots of weeds are those with other priorities... "the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things".  

So basically the difference between good soil and useless soil is that good soil is deep, broken up,(not hardened with pride "rocks" but humble)  and clear of other things (thorny "idol" weeds). 
       Now here is where the metaphor gets...muddy...  we are the dirt but we also have a hand in how well we become "good soil".  Look at what Jeremiah said to a people who were overcome with idols in their lives.   "Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among the thorns"  (Jeremiah 4:1-4 will give you the full context including idols). 

Or look at all of Hosea 10, with that key verse 12..

Sow for yourselves righteousness;

    reap steadfast love;

    break up your fallow ground,

for it is the time to seek the Lord,

    that he may come and rain righteousness upon you

So if you are tracking with me you may be asking yourself....which one is it?? Do WE break up our unplowed ground, remove rocks and uproot plants or does God? Are we just dirt that lays there and we have no choice or do we yank things out and break things up that don't belong? 

YES.

Sometimes the Lord takes something out of my life without my input, and sometimes He points out something that needs to go and tells me "get rid of that" (idol) .  There are times when he is breaking up hard rocks (pride, hardness of heart) through circumstances I can't control and there are times when He tells me to "humble myself". Everything is possible by His Grace alone but our Gardener is all about relationships and everything in my walk with Him seems to be a two way street. Honestly I think He just loves it when we do things together. 

My point is this.  The Good Gardener knows what He is doing. But I don't. He has work to do on my heart. When it hurts, and doesn't make sense, that doesn't mean that He isn't good or comfort won't come. It will.  And fruitfulness along with it.  When He calls me to get to yankin on some weeds that seem like they belong, I can trust Him. He has a plan. He has something better to grow in its place. Besides. The best soil, that deep rich stuff that farmers and gardeners dream of, is soft, has no rocks( hard places of pride) , its full of dead plant matter (dead idols) , and its been .."fertilized on" more than once. (humility). 

Sometimes "heart work" with our Good Gardener is dirty and difficult and scary. . But the results are always beautiful and fruitful.  Lets not forget who has the plan. And trust that because of who the Gardener is, the results are worth the work. For me. For you. For His Glory. 

One day we (and many others) will see what He has been up to and glorify Him for it. One day we will see how the beauty and the food that came from His Good work in us.  But for now, when the work is hard and dirty and sometimes even smelly, we can trust Him. He knows what He is doing. 

New Growth always follows a hard season of plowing and weeding and sowing. 

David Esgro