Pauline Standen

CUTTINGS FROM A SMALL GARDEN by Pauline Standen.

1.  Under New Ownership.

When I first moved into the house where I now live I inherited a garden that had been shaped and planted by the previous owner.  It was the middle of winter, so I had no idea what was there apart from a patch of grass.  After getting rid of the grass I waited a year to see what would grow before deciding what I wanted to do.

What appeared was a garden full of plants that all wanted all of the space.  They fought with each other for dominance, and choked the life out of anything else that tried to show itself.  The soil had not been cared for……the ground was starved.  The whole effect was abhorrent to this passionate gardener.  This garden was mine now, and I wanted it to reflect my ideals and personality, so I set about removing almost everything that was growing there.  I dug plenty of good nutrients into the soil, reshaped the design, and planted what I wanted to see growing.  As I dug I discovered all kinds of rubbish and rubble hidden under the ground, some of which was worth keeping and I was able to recycle.  The transformation didn’t happen immediately – after nine years the basic design is fixed but the adornment is being changed all the time, from glory to glory!

I see in this a reflection of the state of our souls when we first give our lives to God.  We come under new ownership, but God doesn’t have to wait a year to see what he has taken on, he already knows.  He gets to work on us right away, digging up the things in our lives that are offensive to him and not part of his plan for us.  As he digs, sometimes he uncovers things that have been buried which he intended to be out on display, part of his design planted in us right from the moment he first decided we would exist.

We also have a part to play in this reformation.  We have to dig in the nutrients by feeding on the word of God, such as the Bible, appropriate teaching and helpful fellowship.  We must cultivate our relationship with him, listening to what he says and responding with obedience.  This process goes on for the rest of our time in this world, like my garden, ever changing from glory into glory.  I am sure the previous owners of my garden liked the plants they had grown which I got rid of, just as there are things growing in our lives that we quite like and think are OK.  Sometimes it can be painful to have them uprooted, and the roots go so deep it takes a lot of digging and struggling.  But if we want the tender and beautiful plantings of God to grow and produce their fruit we cannot keep the old stuff as well, because it will fight for space and choke the life out of the beautiful things.

• “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.  For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.  But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”  (Romans 7:4-6)
• “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation:  the old has gone, the new has come!”  (2 Corinthians 5:17)