I am sitting in my Study, looking out my Patio doors that overlook the front yard. Generally as I look on this view, I see Crepe Myrtles, Azaleas, and Camilla Bushes. I also enjoy a beautiful carpet of Centipede grass.
However, today I see the trees, shrubs, and bushes - surrounding a basically brown lawn. I am enjoying my neighbors beautiful lawns - but something is drastically wrong with mine. Having called in the lawn service, I was informed that I have "winterkill." In other words, my lawn is basically dead. Centipede grass does not take kindly to snow, ice, frost, and cold temperatures - especially when they vary between warm and cold. It doesn't hit all places - thus my neighbors green grass. In fact, looking closely you can find a sprig of grass here and there. So, I asked what can be done. The service said that I needed to rake, aeriate, seed, water, and wait. Sounds like a lot of work.
As I thought over what I was told, I found some spiritual lessons to be taken from this event. In Job 12:7 (HCSB) we read, "But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you." I am sure the rest of God's Creation holds lessons for us. So, what can I learn from this?
I thought of how in our Christian life the frost, snow, and ice of our devotion effect us. The variance of cold and hot that we go through kill our relationship with our Lord. We do not lose out salvation, just the beauty of our relationship with Him. We find our spirit lifeless - just a sprig of relationship here and there. So, we need to be like the Psalmist in Psalm 51:12 (NLT) who cryed out - "Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you." And, I believe that the Master Gardener would give us the same recommendations as did my lawn service - rake, aeriate, seed, water, and wait.
Join me tomorrow to consider what the first step is to the restoration of joy in our spiritual life and relationship with Jesus is - rake.
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