Monday, July 23, 2012

Garden

I planted a vegetable garden for the first time this year. Some of the plants are doing well, others not so well. Good thing we like green beans.

My garden also has some plants I can't identify. Most likely, many of them are weeds, but I can't tell them apart from some of the plants I direct sowed into the garden. Every time someone who knows about gardening comes over, I ask them to look at my beds and tell me what they think are weeds. But I am afraid to pull too much up, in case I remove something that might produce good food.

It reminds me of the parable of the weeds in Matthew 13. Somewhat. Of course, an enemy didn't sow in my garden. And the farmer in the parable didn't pull the weeds because he didn't want to uproot the wheat, not because he didn't know which plants were weeds.

God knows who the good and evil people are. This parable seems to tell us that, at least in some cases, he is letting evil people be so as not to uproot or harm good people. It's an interesting idea to get our heads around, especially when we hear of shootings and dictators.

It makes me wonder, and meditate and pray.

God has said "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." So when we face evil we are to return it with good. God assures us that in the end the "wheat" will be gathered in and the "weeds" cast out. Of course, the analogy only goes so far. Weeds can't turn into wheat, but through Christ evil people can be turned to the good. I pray that it will be so.



This is my 21st post for the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

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