Praising God and Pulling Weeds!

"Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might" (Ecclesiastes 9:10a)
"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men" (Colossians 3:23)

I think we all have to agree from the outset, beloved, that for most of us the prospect of pulling weeds simply does not conjure up the thought of much opportunity to praise God! Yet I found myself in that very situation this morning as I was removing winter weeds, first from the flower bed out by the mailbox and then in the azalea bed alongside the garage. As I felt the cool dark soil staining my fingers and the pesky roots of those various weeds reluctantly loosing their grip on the soil, I realized that I was actually enjoying myself. Oh, to be sure, there was the satisfaction of seeing the flower beds clean and neat after a winter's worth of weed invasion, but that wasn't really the reason for my satisfaction and my spirit of rejoicing. It was actually the work itself, the joy of doing "what my hands had found to do"! And in that same spirit I found the pleasure of communion with God - not in a pulpit in a house of worship where I am accustomed to standing, but rather right there in the rich dark dirt of God's creation. The fact that I was on my knees the whole time certainly did not hurt that spirit of worship or communion either!

If we as Christians can know such joy and satisfaction when we are enabled to commune with God by putting our hands in the soil, just imagine the possibilities when "whatever your hand finds to do" involves the life of another human being. Imagine the spirit of rejoicing that you will experience if you reach out in the love of Christ and share the good news of His sacrifice with a neighbor or friend or co-worker. Imagine what worship you will have in store each time you are willing to leave your path of travel to unselfishly and with a servant's heart meet the need of someone whom the Spirit of God has brought across that path you are walking. One of the most well-known parables of Jesus involved soil, beloved - the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-9). You see, each time that we reach into the life of another person in the name of Jesus Christ, we are "sowing" the seed of the gospel. We are putting our hands into the soil of another person's life and planting seed that by God's grace will produce an abundant harvest unto eternal life. Worship just does not get any sweeter than that!

Happy gardening!

Ron