Are You Growing Fake Flowers?
What is pretty is not always real, so how can we grow in grace and see the beauty of Christ authentically bloom in our lives? Submit to the Spirit and let him produce beautiful fruit in you as you walk with him.
I will probably never forget the day I drove through a quiet little hamlet here in Pennsylvania and noticed several homes in a row with ‘gardens’ of fake flowers in their tiny postage-stamp-sized yards surrounded by picket fences. I couldn’t help but think that while the sprinkling of color on a late winter day certainly brightened the landscape, it left me with a feeling of sadness—it was so obviously artificial and lifeless.
That sadness reminded me of stories I knew all too well about people who tried so hard to appear pious, pushing down and hiding fleshly behaviors. Their too-bright piety was like looking at fake flowers in the gardens of their lives.
My dad was an amazing gardener. He taught me about the basics of gardening. There are important steps to healthy growth, both for roses and for our faith. One starts with a seed or root, placed in soil. Interestingly enough, good soil may contain more than a few dead things.
Often, growth happens in our faith journey after a deliberate or circumstantial loss or death. Not just physical pain or loss, but maybe the death of ideas, behaviors, or opinions…I love to think that our Father lovingly plants a seed for us in that dark and dead soil, knowing that HE can bring out life.
That tiny plant of our faith needs guidance and protection. Often, the gardener places a fence or trellis as a guide for the plant to climb. In our faith journey, God may provide some ‘protectors’ or guides. Any of the pests or diseases that can cripple a plant have their match in human behavior: hatred, discord, jealousy, and envy can all derail our faith.
The Spirit Changes Us From Within
A plant cannot choose to avoid those attackers, or fight them off in its own strength, and neither can we in our spiritual life. But by keeping our focus on Christ Jesus and drawing our life from HIM, his indwelling Spirit can do what we cannot.
As humans, we can do our best to avoid acts of the flesh, knowing that they disrupt our relationship with Christ, but we are powerless to do so on our own. What we can do is confess our sins and be forgiven. When we live a new life in step with the Spirit, we are no longer under the law, but our desires and inclinations are to follow Him.
Displaying the Fruit of the Spirit
We get our direction and our motivation from HIM, and in HIS power, we can bear the spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, kindness, and goodness; it just sprouts out of His life in us. We get to be the stem for his flower and fruit.
The plant is completely dependent on the life inside it to sprout buds, eventually bloom, and produce fruit. The plant spends its energy soaking up water and sunlight, and the result is that it grows the way the Creator intended.
Flowers are so intent on their created purpose that it seems unlikely they are looking at the way their neighboring blooms are faring. If we are living by the Spirit, dependent on him for our life and our growth, then He produces the fruit; we don’t have to ‘zip-tie' it on for appearance.
The Beauty of Blooming
The beauty and aroma of a genuine flower come directly from the life within the plant, nourished and protected by the gardener. The flower is completely unaware of its capacity; there is a lovely humility in ‘just blooming.' What joy to the eye and heart is a garden of well-tended blooms!
May our faith be alive and authentic, fed by the saving grace and love of Jesus Christ, and may our lives bring a beautiful fragrance to our neighbors.
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