As I was washing dishes this morning, I was checking out the plants growing in the flowerbed beneath the kitchen window. The red Japanese maple, in full morning sun, was beautiful, as usual. At least the top of it looked good. The top of the rhododendron looked good as well. Yep, the tops looked real good.
Why do I say the tops looked good? What about the rest of those two plants? You see, the ferns have returned in full force. Actually, the ferns have always been there, but didn't start shooting up until a few weeks ago. And I do mean shooting!. They are already four feet tall and completely hiding the maple and the rhodie, except for their tops. That means only one thing--more work.
The actual cutting is an easy job. Snip, snip, snip. Snip, snip, snip. Multiply that twenty fold; and I'm done. It's easy clean up, too. Gather the fronds by the armfuls and toss them into the nearby wheelbarrow. Nothing to it.
When I'm done, the flowerbed will look great except for one thing. The now exposed lower branches of the maple will reveal their deep, dark secret. They are nude, completely leafless. Oooops, I should have removed the ferns before they caused the problem. I was in this same situation last year, and the year before that.
Actually, I am part of the problem. It isn't that I don't like the work, it is that I like the ferns better. I feel like a butcher when I get in there with my pruners and start cutting them down. I can almost hear them scream in agony (a bit of hyperbole here). Part of me says I should let everything that grows, grow in peace. Another part reminds me of Scripture. Genesis 1: 28a says, "...and God said...replenish the earth, and subdue it. Genesis 2:15 says "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."So, I guess I need to take control and tell my flower bed that I am the boss. I am the one to decide who grows where and when. You, ferns can grow under my firs, but not in my flowerbed.
Once they are gone, I know I will find dainty little plants growing, practically unseen, in the fern's former shadows. I also have a beautiful white azalea being engulfed by them. Sadly, I can remove only the fronds since the roots are too deep. The roots are too tough. The roots are impossible to pull up and almost impossible to dig out. Until I remove the roots, though, I will be forever working at controlling the flowerbed.
Isn't this the way it is with life, too? Weeds of Ungodly thoughts about ourselves and others, weeds of Unforgiveness, weeds of Addiction, and every other kind of weed imaginable slowly grow, unnoticed at first, then becoming tolerable, until the day comes that we realize parts of us are being either choked out or hidden by the unwanted growth. Finally, we reach a point, like today in my flowerbed, that it is time for unwanted growth to go.
Weeding and pruning, confession of sin in other words, is absolutely necessary if our true, God-given beauty is to be seen. The hard part, though, and usually the ignored part, is getting to the unseen roots of our sin, the hurts, fears, abuse, the abandonment, etc.. If that isn't dealt with and removed, we will continually battle the fronds, the vines, the parts that are seen and heard.
Confessing out actions and reactions, our words and our silence is easy. It's the root removal that is hard work.
Identifying, digging up and destroying roots in my own life is a process God and I have just started. It is hard
Going out to subdue my flowerbed after lunch,
Jan
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