Spring is the perfect time to evaluate what you sow into the atmosphere.
It’s Spring.
As so many gardeners will attest, now is the time to start planning and planting a garden that will provide color and vegetation throughout the summer and even fall and winter seasons. I’ve been thinking about planting a garden for a while but with the social distancing rules in place, I have realized that my time for prepping and putting things in the ground is right now. While I was looking at options for my flower garden in an online store, I found out there are hundreds of varieties of flowers and plantings. And those varieties are divided into either annuals and perennials.
Annuals are flowers and vegetable plants which have only one season of growth. They have to be replanted every year, if you want the same plant. Perennials are plants and flora which, after they are planted, come back year after year. There is no need to re-plant perennials after the initial planting. They perpetuate themselves. There are so many choices, so many varieties of flowers for my garden. But it’s up to me to decide which ones will come back and which ones I’ll have to plant time and time again.
Thinking about a garden in my backyard got me to thinking about my life as a believer. I often say that when I was redeemed by God, He reset my life and put me in my own garden of Eden to design, plant and have dominion over. Our lives are a spiritual grand garden, which God put us in to tend and keep. Father God wants to tell us which flowers, trees, plants and vegetables would work best in our garden, yet the design and plantings in our garden are largely up to us. It’s called free will. And we reap the consequences of our choices.
Annuals are representative of a one time idea or plan God gives us, which is good for that season, but never bears fruit or flowers more than that one time. An annual plant means it’s good for that season but we shouldn’t expect it to go further than that perfect timing God has for us to move in. Having an annual mindset can be a trap, if we are not careful. We could keep doing the same things over and over again, through our own intelligence and plans, thinking if God told us to do it once, it should work everytime. Yet by trying to get a perennial result from an annual planting we will never get more out of it than repetitive motion. It’s a limited planting. Our annuals take up a lot of precious time to plan and plant, yet we should realize a real harvest only comes once from this planting. These plants cannot perpetuate year after year to leave anything for others to enjoy or use. They are good for one season and that timing alone.
Perennials represent the righteous ideas, plans and ways of living that God says will work perpetually in our lives. When we look at and pattern ourselves after His masterpiece garden, Jesus Christ, we can plant a way of life which is not only beautiful but always fruitful. The wonderful thing about this type of seed is, even though it takes the same amount of time and effort to plant as an annual, you only have to do it once. Do the hard work of living like Christ in that particular part of your garden once and reap the harvest of your efforts forever. And by abiding by the truths found in His Word, we produce a bountiful harvest which will feed ourselves and the lives of many people around us and generations to come.
It is Springtime. We have the chance to plan and plant our gardens for seasons to come. God may give you an annual to plant that will be beautiful and produce a harvest that is just right for this time. However, strive to plant perennials in your spiritual garden that will bear the fruit of the Spirit today, tomorrow and forevermore.
It’s up to you to decide how you want your garden to grow.
Leave a Reply