October 16, 2022
Reagan
There was a gardener, and in his garden, he had a multitude of trees. He had dogwoods, maples, cypresses, magnolias, birches, and many others, but not one very special kind of tree. He had no evergreens. So one day he decided he needed a very special evergreen tree. He found a seed and brought it to his garden. He picked a perfect place, a little separated from the rest of the trees, so it would have room to flourish. He prepared a hole in the ground and carefully placed the seedling inside. It was springtime when the tree was planted.
Over time, the evergreen began to spring up, it was about a foot tall and still very fragile. A great storm with rain and wind blew in. The gardener placed new mulch around it and covered it to keep it in place. Its roots were not yet deep enough. The storm came and the wind howled through the night. The gardener stayed up all night making sure that his plants and trees were ok. He walked out in the morning and went over to the evergreen. It was still standing.
In the winter, the evergreen’s roots were beginning to run deep. It was growing leaves and thriving in its place in the garden. The weather turned cold and snow fell from the sky. The evergreens branches froze in place, covered in frost, they stood. For weeks, the snow stood still and the clouds rolled. The nights were cold, but the evergreen stood strong.
One day, the gardener decided to buy a new house. The evergreen was his favorite, so he decided he was going to bring it with him to his new home. The gardener went to dig up the evergreen tree, whose roots were then as deep as its own height. The evergreen would not let go of the perfect spot where the gardener had originally placed it to grow. The gardener dug around the roots, so that they were not harmed. He pulled it out of the ground and placed it in a pot. He then poured fresh, fertilized soil into the pot with the tree. He wrapped it up to keep it safe and help it to stand. The new soil that was placed in the pot helped the tree along the journey to a new home. It provided moisture and the nutrients it needed while it was out of the ground. The gardener and the tree arrived together at the new garden. He brought the evergreen to the new garden. It was nothing like the old garden. It was intertwined with thorn bushes and overgrown plants and large trees. The gardener placed the tree in between two large thorn bushes. He dumped the soil from the pot in the ground and dug a deep hole for the roots. The evergreen struggled with the plants around it. The thorn bushes roots became tangled with the evergreens and tried to choke the life out of it. In the early winter, the gardener bagan to remove the thorn bushes and cut back the overgrown plants. It became empty and still in the garden. The soil was not smooth around the evergreen when the snow began to fall. Time stood still in the garden and things froze.
Then, after weeks, the ice thawed and brought great moisture to the garden. The snow melted away and the weather had begun to feel warmer. The gardener came to the garden and tended to the soil around the evergreen. The evergreen was now over ten feet tall and its roots were twice its size. The spring brought forth all kinds of beautiful flowers and bushes of many colors. The evergreen became the center of the new garden and new things bloomed all around it. It was a shelter for everything around it.
How you can you relate your life to this modern parable? Do you know that our gardener has a perfect plan? Seasons change, but God is the same. He will never leave your side. Be rooted in God, so that when the wind comes and changes happen, you can stand strong!
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV
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