I’m sure you have already guessed by now – mixed into the weeds were some young onions! They were not very obvious, and I had pulled up some by mistake before I realized they were even there. The thought hit me – there are times in our lives when we need to know that there is often beauty among the thorns, and goodness among the weeds of life.
I’m sure you have already guessed by now – mixed into the weeds were some young onions! They were not very obvious, and I had pulled up some by mistake before I realized they were even there. The thought hit me – there are times in our lives when we need to know that there is often beauty among the thorns, and goodness among the weeds of life. We will completely miss it if we don’t look, and will not be able to reap the benefits of it if we are not careful to distinguish the two. Once I had discovered my hidden treasure, it still was not easy to get rid of the weeds I had let grow there. It took much patience to unwind the weeds that had crawled between the young shoots and remove them without damage to my gift. That is the way life is. If we are not watchful, the cares and weeds of life will try and take over the garden of our heart where we have planted good things. And sometimes there are things planted there that will take a lot longer to grow and come to fruition. I had given up hope of ever seeing onions and I let “life happen.” Never give up hope; you never know what good can still come to you no matter what it looks like. On the surface, it seemed that nothing was happening, but underneath it all, there was a lot of growing going on. That onion I had planted the first year was determined to produce good fruit for me, so when it was not harvested appropriately, it chose to multiply and make its presence known. My ignorance almost let this good thing die because after planting the seeds, I once again neglected the gift given me (my second chance) and the cares of this life tried to crowd it out. If we allow bitterness and unforgiveness to creep into our hearts, what was once trying to grow and bring us joy can become hidden and susceptible to being strangled or cast out, unrecognized for the good that it is.
The moral of this story?
- Never give up hope, even if it seems to take forever to reap the rewards of what you sow (whether in words or deeds).
- Never let the sadness, the ugliness, the hurtful things of life allow you to miss the beauty that awaits just underneath the thicket.
- Get rid of those weeds that try to take over before they get a stronghold, and while they are small – they are much easier than when they are left to create a huge taproot that can create a hole in the soul, a wound that takes much longer to heal than it should have.
Be blessed as you go and re-evaluate YOUR garden/heart today.