From the Pastor's Pen

Dear Friends,

As you can see my vegetable garden is growing well.  It is only a small garden because it provides vegetables for mostly just me.  My husband is not a fan of vegetables.  So the garden is full of vegetables I love to eat: carrots, green beans, broccoli and spinach.  The zucchini bush plant is in a separate large container as are the strawberry plants.  I figure there is no point in growing things I don’t like to eat.  There are a few other things I’d like to add over time, but I’ll need a bigger box, so I’m waiting to see how this little garden does this year.

You may have also noticed there are a few weeds growing up in these beds.  I haven’t been out to pull the weeds for a couple of weeks now.  It’s time.  I like to stay ahead of the weeds so they don’t reseed in the garden and make a major mess.  Weeds are just a fact of life.  They grow among the plants we choose to grow and will crowd out the preferred plants if they are not dealt with swiftly.

Jesus talked about weeds in the parable of the sower.  He said that when the sower went out to sow the seed, some of it fell among the weeds, they grew up together, and the weeds choked out the good seed.  Jesus was talking about the word of God as it gets sown in our lives.  Hopefully it grows well and thrives in us and we bear fruit that pleases God.  Don’t be surprised by a few weeds.  Weeds are a fact of life.  They grow where they don’t belong.  These are the seeds of selfishness, anger, greed, lust, hate… to name a few.  They are the things in our lives that lead us away from our central purpose: to love God with our whole selves and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Weeds take a unique form in each of us.  They seem to gravitate to our personal weaknesses in the same way weeds in a garden gravitate to the weak soil.  Don’t be alarmed that weeds show up in your live, but don’t leave them to grow too long.  Weeds need to be yanked out before they go to seed and make a major mess.

In this growing season, rejoice in the seeds of the Word of God growing in you.  Do everything you can to help them to thrive!

Happy Gardening,

Pr. Sally