God Is Our Gardener
Imagine you’re standing in front of two gates. The first gate leads to a beautiful, lush garden that’s filled with sweet-smelling fruit and a bountiful harvest. The second gate leads to what could be a garden but instead is filled with weeds, rocks, thorns, and soil from which nothing can grow. Which gate would you choose to step through? Which garden would you choose to spend time in? You’d of course most likely pick the former.
Did you know the Bible compares our lives to a garden? (More on this later.) And just like in the analogy above, we also have a choice about what kind of garden our lives will become—one that is fruitful and flourishing, or one that is hardened and stagnant. But how do we actually step into the kind of garden that’s filled with life and that produces fullness, abundance, beauty, and a bounty of love, joy, and peace? Today I want to share three Biblical steps that we can take to tend to the gardens of our lives. We can remember these steps as three R’s: recognize, relinquish, and remain.
1. Recognize our responsibility to tend to our hearts
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells his disciples the parable of the sower. In the parable, he lays out three different types of soil onto which a farmer plants seeds—shallow soil, thorn-filled soil, and fertile soil. In His explanation, Jesus says that when the seed (representing God’s Word and the message about the Kingdom) falls onto fertile soil, it produces a harvest of “thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted” (Matthew 13:23).
On the other hand, Jesus says if the soil is shallow, “then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts” (Matthew 13:19). And if the shallow is thorny, “they fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s Word” (Matthew 13:21).
If the seed represents God’s Word, what does the soil represent? It represents our hearts. We need to recognize then that it’s our responsibility to tend to the health of our soil. We need to tend to our hearts. Psalm 19:14 says, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and redeemer.” 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “Humans look at outward appearances, but the Lord looks into the heart.” God cares deeply about what’s in our hearts and longs for us to love Him with ALL our heart (Matthew 23:37). And the way we keep God at the center of our heart is to trust in Him and ask for help from the Holy Spirit. For the Word says that He, “the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
2. Relinquish control to our gardener
Have you ever noticed that Jesus calls our Father a gardener? I find this fascinating! In John 15:1, Jesus says, “My Father is the gardener. 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.” When I read this scripture, I felt led to pause and research more about what the process of pruning entails. Here are three big takeaways that I learned:
Pruning is the practice of selectively removing certain parts of a plant for optimal growth. God longs to help us grow into the people He’s created and called us to be!
The parts that get removed depend on what the gardener is trying to achieve with that specific plant. And just like gardeners know what specific plants need, God knows exactly what His plan and purpose is for our lives.
When pruning, gardeners often remove parts of the plant that are dying or dead. Do you see God working to remove the parts of your life or parts of your past that have no place in your future?
I’m personally so grateful that God is our gardener because it means that we’re ultimately not the one responsible for making things grow–God is. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul writes, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of the process but God, who makes things grow” (verses 6-7). As followers of Jesus, we may plant seeds or water seeds in other people’s lives, but it’s ultimately God who sees to it that those seeds grow into something that has life and bears fruit. And the same goes for our lives. As we to tend to our hearts, we also need to relinquish control and submit to God’s role as the gardener in our lives.
3. Remain connected to the vine
If God’s job is to be the gardener, then what is our job? Jesus tells us the answer: our job is to remain connected to Him. Receive His words in John 15:
“I am the true vine…no branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.” (verses 1, 4)
“If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (verse 5)
“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (verse 8)
What does remaining in Jesus look like exactly? The Passion Translation reads, “Your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine” (John 15:4). What a beautiful picture of how we’re to live—intimately joined to Jesus in every area. Before we make a life decision, are we bringing it to Jesus? When our emotions our spiraling out of control, are we seeking Him for help? Are we submitting our behaviors, our old patterns, our thoughts, and our impulses to the one who IS the way, the truth, and the life?
I hope you’re encouraged by this message today. Remember that God wants to see your life bear so much fruit, Jesus wants us to live our lives WITH Him, and the Holy Spirit wants to help guide the way. And if you’re not seeing a fruitful “garden” in your life right now, I want to encourage you receive His grace with thankfulness and to not give up, for His Word says in Galatians 6:9, “Don’t allow yourselves to be weary in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming!”
