Healthy Growth

I planted a summer garden and waited with great anticipation for the seedlings to grow and produce their vegetables.  I watered them regularly and woke up every morning to check their progress.  I was like an expectant parent waiting on the birth of a new addition.   Finally the plants began to flower, which signaled the coming of the veggies. and I could hardly contain myself. It was much like God, when we are born again and overflowing with potential.  He waits with anticipation as we learn and grow, waiting for our maturation when we too will become productive in his kingdom. Then one morning, I checked the garden, and noticed parasites had attached themselves to my beautiful plants.  They were visible at first on the leaves, then on the veggies themselves.

The okra plants were my personal favorite. They previously produced abundantly.  The leaves started to die and drop off, and it looked as though the plants were lost.  Determined to save them, I nurtured them, and tended them back to health.  To my surprise only one plant started to bear again.  The others grew beautiful leaves and flourished but…no okra!  I checked day after day. Gradually, I began to understand the story in Matthew 7:9: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” If beauty were their only virtue, these plants had become useless to me.  If they did not produce the vegetables they were designed to bear; I would be cut down and replace them.

I finally understood the lesson of the plants, we can be beautiful and filled with God’s spirit, exist only for ourselves, and be useless to God.   We must use our gifts to do kingdom work, and enrich other’s lives.

The tomatoes presented yet another scenario.  They became riddled with parasites, and no matter how many times I sprayed them the parasites persisted.  They penetrated the tomatoes, and ate them from the inside out.  Finally I cut the plants down, and threw them away.  The parasites had corrupted them. The infected plant produced many tomatoes, but the corruption made them useless.

We can be productive, flourish, produce awesome results, and still become infested by parasites, associate with the wrong people, and things that corrupt us from the inside out.  We must respond to challenge with the wisdom in God’s word, or risk being discarded by Him.   Our associations matter.

 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” John15:16 ��