Good Soil

 I got a new plant last weekend. A few days after I got it, I stuck it in the pot with my honeysuckle, as I intended this new one to be a ground cover for the base of the pot. A few days after I planted it, I noticed it was looking a bit pathetic. It was droopy and failing to thrive. I decided to uproot it and place it in a different pot. I was pretty sure I knew what the problem was.

Prior to getting this new plant, I'd placed some sphagnum moss on top of the soil in the honeysuckle pot. When I planted this new plant in that pot, I planted it in the sphagnum moss, rather than the soil. The soil was too far down and the plant wasn't getting nutrients. The sphagnum moss looked like soil and felt like soil, but it had no nutrients for the plant. A few days after planting it in the pot with no sphagnum moss on the top, it perked up and began to thrive. Why? Because it was finally in real soil. It had good soil, soil with nutrients to help it grow and thrive. 

I was thinking about this just now as I sat outside, looking at my now thriving plant, and felt like it pertained to church. What kind of church are you in? Are you in a church that looks and feels like church? Are you growing and thriving? Or are you slowly dying because the church lacks the nutrients you need to grow? What is the teaching like? Is it encouraging your roots to grow deep, or stay surface level? We need good soil to grow and thrive, or, like my plant, we will whither away and die.   

A Good Gardener

Just got done planting a bunch of bulbs that were sprouting. I love how so many things can be connected to spiritual principles.

There comes a time when God lovingly has to uproot us to plant us elsewhere. It's for our good, even though we don't like it. We may have grown comfortable where we are, but He knows that the soil is not good for our roots. He knows we need to be replanted elsewhere so that we can grow and bloom into what He intended for us to be. Like my bulbs today, He pulls us from the nutrient-less soil, pulls away all of the dead stuff encasing us, and intentionally places us into new soil. He then waters us, thus beginning the patient process of watching and waiting.

I'm so thankful He knows what's best for me. And His timing can be trusted. If I'd planted those bulbs too soon, they wouldn't grow into what they were designed for. Planted too late and the outcome would be the same. He not only knows where we need to be planted, but also the right time.

He's such a good Gardener.