The garden had been in disarray for some time, so I decided it was time for a clean-up. After going past the front part of my garden several times on my walks I decided to start on my lavender patch. From the side walk it’s one of the first parts of the garden that people can see. After weeks of scorching hot temperatures the lavender was starting to dry up, but the problem was you couldn’t even see it because of the weeds growing over and around it. So I began pulling out the grass and weeds.
About half an hour in I realised the weeds I was pulling out had a familiar whiff. I looked at the handful of grass I’d just pulled out and nestled in the midst was a small clump of lavender. Not dry and prickly and colourless like the other bushes. It was green and fragrant. So I saved it from the weed bucket and replanted it in another section of the lavender patch.
As I was doing this I was reminded of the parable Jesus[1] told of a man sowing wheat. But when he was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed seeds of weeds amongst the wheat. Once it was sown the man couldn’t tell the wheat from the weeds. It wasn’t until it was fully grown that he could decipher which was wheat and which were weeds. Then as the crop was harvested was he able to separate the wheat from the weeds.
In my little garden patch, the lavender was too small to be noticed. The reason it stood out from the weeds and grass was because of its scent and it helped that I was familiar with its scent.
We as Christians live in a world where we are surrounded by weeds. These weeds come from seeds of darkness – sin and worldliness – and everything that comes with that. It can often appear to grow above us, squash us, and crowd us from view. But if someone were to take you and squash you as it were what would come out? One of the best ways to get the scent of the lavender is in fact to crush it and squeeze it. Would what comes out of your life be a beautiful fragrance or would you just blend in with everything and everyone else?
The bible calls us to stand out. We are to be the fragrance
of Christ[2],
salt[3]
– to bring flavour and a light[4]
– in the darkness. What is it in your life that makes you stand out and bring
beauty and a lovely scent into your world?
[1]Matthew 13:24-30 (NIV)
[2] 2 Corinthians 2:15 (NIV)
[3] Matthew 5:13 (NIV)
[4] Matthew 5:14 (NIV)