Keep the Snake out of Your Garden!
It’s the time of year for planting, for tending to the garden. Weeds grow at an alarming rate while the tender sprouts from seeds planted are struggling to survive their new life. I often think of Eve and the very first garden. I picture it as I pull weeds in mine. It’s easy becoming discouraged when I think of a perfect garden and compare it to my not-so-perfect one. Yet the truth is, Eve wasn’t really satisfied with her garden either. If she had been she never would have fallen for the lies of that sneaky snake.
In all the beauty and perfection of a life planted by God she listened to His enemy and desired the one thing she was told she couldn’t have. Isn’t that how we can be also? We tell ourselves, “If only I had…, if only I could…., if only he or they would…” We may not hear the hiss of his voice or feel his sulfur stinky breath on our necks, but those words originated from him and they bring the same kind of desire in our hearts that caused Eve to sin. Those words say, “God is not enough.” They say, “God has not met all my needs; God is holding out on me.”
There are so many things we daughters of Eve can learn from her mistake. Contentment perhaps is the one I’m learning lately. It is a reminder that the most important seeds I plant are not the ones in my garden but the ones in my heart – gratitude or something else? There will always be weeds trying to grow, but when I’m walking with God, He will help me pull them out.
I’m sure Eve would have given anything to be able to go back to that garden and walk there with God. I think if she could speak to us she would have some good advice from hindsight. She would probably tell us to be thankful for what we have; what God has provided. She might tell us to pull the weeds with a thankful heart and water seeds of gratitude along with the squash and radishes; to spend time with God there. And I’m pretty sure she would give us a strong warning to keep that slithering snake out of our gardens!
Now godliness with contentment is great gain.
1Timothy 6:6
Charlotte
Awesome post, very true.