Romans 15:4 "Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. The Scriptures give us patience and encouragement so that we can have hope."
It's that time of year again. As I sit in my sunroom soaking in the warmth of the sunshine and sounds of spring my mind begins to start thinking about planting season. I'm looking forward to starting a garden and planting my flowers. For some of you, you may have already started your plants indoors and are already enjoying seeing them grow. Spring is always a great time of year for newness and putting the winter behind us. Whenever I begin to think about planting season, I'm always drawn to new lessons I can learn from God and today I have a new one.
Let's start by asking a couple of questions. Have you ever had a plant knocked over in your house and the dirt spills out and you have to scoop it back into the pot and cover the roots again? Maybe you've had to replant the plant because the pot broke in its fall. Another quick question. When you've transplanted flowers to the ground from their pots, do you notice the nutrients in the soil as you move it into the ground? That's one of my favorite parts because I know a lot of that potted soil will stay in the ground helping my dirt become better each year with the added nutrients.
Let's start with the second question, the nutrients. We can learn a lot about our friendships even relationships from a plant. Aside from sun and water, what keeps a plant flourishing, the nutrients. When a plant is fed the right nutrients, a lot of which comes from the sun, it will grow but when it doesn't get the right amount of sunshine or water it will wither up and die. You have to be careful not to overwater them or let them get too much sun or they could die too (I've done that a couple of times already). Like a plant we need to feed our relationships with nutrients and the Bible has given us the perfect list. Love, patience, kindness, gentleness, and many more, known as the Fruit of the Spirit. When we treat others with these characteristics, we are helping our friendships flourish and we will grow closer and stronger with each other. Seems rather simple like sun and water to a plant, right?
But there is another side to this. Going back to my first question let's see what we can learn. Sometimes we fall and our soil spills all over the place. We might lose our “love for people”, we lose patience, or we forget kindness. We might snap at our friends, children, or even our spouse, but there is a blessed assurance we can have. Even though we will fall and some of the good nutrients may spill out we serve a gracious God who gently reaches down and scoops up the spill and then picks up the pieces and puts us back together so we can have strong roots again.
Once we are rooted in Jesus, we can begin to get even more nutrients from the Bible and spending time with Jesus. The deeper the roots become the stronger we become, so when trials, temptations or storms of life come, we won't be moved because we are firmly planted in Jesus.
It's amazing how something as simple as plants or planting can have so much for us to learn about Jesus in our lives. As we enter spring this year and we grow our gardens, allow Jesus to show you truths you can relate to. Remember in all your relationships to properly feed them with the right nutrients and watch them grow. Above all, remember not one of us is perfect and we will stumble and fall but Jesus will always be there to help pick you up and tuck your roots just a little deeper in Him. Have a wonderful spring and enjoy the sunshine!
We've made it to lesson 7 with our Blue Jean Faith Study through James. Even if you're not doing the study I hope you have found time to read through James along with us and learned some new things. Today let's continue our reading with James 3:13-4:3.
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