The Day Between

How Does Your Garden Grow?

There’s something about dirt. Getting one’s hands dirty, pulling weeds, planting something beautiful – it’s therapeutic. Life can be ugly sometimes; a delicate living thing can lift a spirit. In my thinking, flowers are God’s love letter to mankind. They come in all sizes and colors, grow just about anywhere, beautify wherever they’re planted – what a blessing! They don’t just bloom for the wise and good. Anyone can enjoy them and be blessed by their beauty. It is good for our mental health to watch the flowers grow.

I used to work with an older experienced nurse who told me that was exactly what she did on her days off – sit and watch the flowers grow. Sometimes that is just what we need. A chance to focus on something other than our troubles, responsibilities, and obligations – just watching the flowers grow – forgetting the ugly and focusing on the beautiful.

As Jesus said, “... Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these” (Matthew 6:28-29). Now Jesus was instructing us not to worry about the basic necessities of life, but to seek Him first. Flowers grow and are beautiful, because that’s how God made them. They grow and turn toward the sun, provide pollen for bees, and pleasure to eyes by design. They don’t make themselves; they function within the blueprint the Creator devised for them.

Is it the same for us? Are we meant to thrive within a holy structure – a pattern the Father has prepared for us?

The apostle Paul tells us that what the Lord intends for us is not something we can accomplish on our own. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them(Ephesians 2:8-10).

It strikes me that the Christian life is a fine balance between working and resting, walking and abiding, preparing and waiting – we must dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness (Psalm 37:3b). We must do what we can for God’s kingdom, and then rest knowing He is ultimately responsible for the results.

Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, and you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:1-5).

A tree bears fruit, because it is the natural by-product of what it is – it cannot pretend to be something that it’s not – it bears the fruit it was created to bear while resting within the intentions of its creator. It has a single focus.

Perspective is vital in life. It is easy to be unhappy and disappointed. We get ample opportunities to experience those feelings. A single focus helps us sort out what’s important – it helps us rest in the intention the Creator has for us.

The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness (Matthew 6:22-23)!

D.A. Carson, in his The Sermon on the Mount, expounds on what Jesus said about the eye in the above verse:

The whole body – that is, the whole person – is pictured as a room or a house. The purpose of the eye is to illuminate the room, to ensure that it is “full of light.” The eye then serves as the source of light; we might think of a window in an otherwise windowless room, although in fact Jesus uses the figure of a lamp, not a window.

For the individual to be full of light, then, the eyes must be “good.” If they are bad, if their flame is smoky or their glass caked with soot, if their wick is untrimmed of their fuel depleted, the person remains in utter darkness. Clearly, it is important to discover just what Jesus means, in non-metaphorical terms, by demanding that the eye be “good.”

But this adjective “good” is a little perplexing. The word in the original was used in the Septuagint to mean “singleness of purpose, undivided loyalty”: hence “single” in the King James Version…

I suggest that the Septuagint meaning of the word is best, if we may judge by the context…The good eye is the one fixed on God, unwavering in its gaze, constant in its fixation.

The result is that the entire person is “full of light.” I think this expression is lovely. If light is taken in its usual connotations of revelation and purity, then the individual with a single eye toward kingdom values is the person characterized by maximum understanding of divinely revealed truth and by unabashedly pure behavior. Moreover, the expression “full of light” is probably not limited to what the person is in himself, isolated; but that person will also be so full of light that he will give off light. It is by this unreserved commitment to kingdom values that Christians become “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).

The alternative is to be “full of darkness,” devoid of revelation and purity. That darkness is especially appalling if the person deceives himself. If he thinks his eye is good when it is bad, he talks himself into believing that his nominal loyalty to kingdom values is deep and genuine, when in fact it is shallow and contrived. That person’s darkness is greatest who thinks his darkness is light:  “If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

“Singleness of purpose, undivided loyalty” is that all God asks of us? If we want to be used by Him, be satisfied, abide where He has placed us – we must give Him first place in all areas – have a “good” eye to see things the way He does and shine His light on this troubled world.

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for every good work (2 Timothy 2:20-21).

Let us be a vessel He can use with a clear focus and an undivided heart - beautiful blooms in the Father's garden.