A Stroll through the Garden

Imagine for a moment: a garden, as big as your imagination.

Entering through the rocky opening, the luscious greens, violets, reds, blues, yellows rush to meet your eyes

A freshness and vibrancy are in the air as you take a stroll through it

The design, the spectacle, the uniformity: so crisply clean to gaze upon

You see a bird: perhaps, a blue jay, or a robin. They hum a melody so sweet and majestic.

The wind lightly combs your hair with its gentle gusts and breezes

You take a deep breath.

(larger-than-life inhale)

(a dramatic exhale)

Yes.

This is your life.

What isn’t there to love?

It is your hard work on display.

You scan the scenery.

Searching with anticipation

Firmly rooted in the center of the garden: the Redwood tree of your wisdom and knowledge.

Ah, yes. 

How thoroughly you enjoy looking upon its massiveness and beauty.

For, after all, it has taken years of schooling and living on the “streets” to see it grow.

It took sitting through boring teachers, talkative pastors, overbearing parents, and unsympathetic friends to finally reach its incredible height. Though you know it’s growth has sometimes little to do with you, you take pride in it as if you did it alone.

You follow the bark of the tree to the ground and notice that you are surrounded by the tall grass of your kindness and gentleness

How joyous and abundant it is.

You run and play with it and trust your safety in it.

There can be no harm in grass such as this.

Not a snake lurking somewhere, waiting to strike right?…

No.

This is my life.

My garden.

Nothing catches me by surprise…

Through the tall grass you gallop speedily on a hidden path you have run many times before

Excitement

Anticipation

It’s just around the corner

You burst into a secret clearing full of daisies and lilies, the mark of your good deeds seen and unseen.

Here you have spent hours, arranging them in rows and by size.

You count their exceedingly growing number and find satisfaction and self-importance in how well they have grown.

You count them again.

And again.

And again.

How wonderful they are.

How wonderful you are.

This must be how life is done right.

But…

Something catches your eye, nestled in the corner of the garden.

You rub your eyes to make sure it isn’t a mirage

No, it’s there.

A grouping of weeds.

Bitterness, self-righteousness, jealousy, selfishness, hate, anger.

“It’s not too, too big,” you think to yourself.

But the size of them definitely alarms you.

…

And what is this?

You see the ground.

A darkish color has formed underneath, unlike anything else you have seen in the garden.

 Was this rotten foundation here when you first strolled through the garden?

You try to remember… you don’t remember seeing it before.

You think.

You decide to take a more thorough stroll through of the garden.

You find other patches with weeds and stuff just like it

Confused

Puzzled

Where did they come from?…

You have never noticed them before….

Perhaps, You were too busy staring at your favorite plants, not paying attention to the rest.

What should you do?

You decide that it isn’t that big of a deal and that you can come back in a few days or so to fix it

You leave.

…

…

Time passes, much faster than you expected.

It’s a year later.

You are strolling through the garden.

Disbelief.

Distraught.

Dreary.

The rotten foundation and the weeds have overrun your beautiful garden.

…

Like the fool who built his house upon the sands,

Like the Pharisee who put his faith in his own hands,

Don’t get caught up in your “goodness” and “good sensations”,

That you disregard the roots of life, the only foundation

Who gave you life, breath, meaning, flesh and bone

He’s the wellspring of life; he is Jesus Christ, alone.

 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. ³ You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

 ⁵ “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. ⁷ But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! ⁸ When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.” (John 15: 1-8)