We did something very exciting and dreadful this summer — we moved! Although it was a lot of work to get situated, we are now so happy with our sunny yellow house in our favorite part of town. Along with our cozy home came this added responsibility called a yard. The yard wasn’t in bad shape when we moved in, but I would definitely like it to be better.

One thing our yard supports a large ecosystem of weeds — a population I find highly undesirable. So lately, I have been in the process of killing and uprooting all the weeds that don’t meet my manicured expectations. Some are remarkably easy to pull up because of their shallow roots, and yet some are surprisingly difficult. You cannot tell the underbelly of either from what it looks like in the topsoil.

The Bible has more to say about unexpected foliage than you might think. Planted, roots, weeds — these are all illustrations favorited by the Lord on several recorded occasions. In Mark 4, He talks about one particular “weed”.

3 Behold, a sower went out to sow….7 Seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 

In any planting and growing, roots are a very important part of the equation. In fact, that’s one of the main points Jesus was getting at when He was telling the parable of the sower in Mark 4. The seed the birds picked up (v4) was so easily snatched, because it hadn’t had the time to grow roots. The seed among the rocks (v5-6), though it grew initially, was ultimately scorched because it had not taken root. The seed among the ‘weeds’, or thorns, was suffocated, yielding no grain because the roots were intermixed with the roots of other life-draining plants. The seed that was able to grow and become fruitful did so because the roots were allowed to grow freely without obstruction in good soil.

There are many aspects of this story. You could talk about the soil, about the seed, etc. Right now, I want to focus on the roots. In all my sweaty hours spent working outside this weekend on my hands and knees, I was having profound thoughts about weeds y’all, and I’ve observed 5 things (so far!) about roots through this pesky greenery.

1. Like I said above, you can’t judge much about a root by looking at the exterior. I would go to pull a little small weed that I thought would be no big deal, and it would end up being the hardest one to try and uproot. Then I would get to a weed that looked large, and brace myself for a tough pull, but it would slip out of the soil with barely a fight. Sometimes we look at small sins, like bitterness or discontentment, and we see only a little leaf. It doesn’t seem too harmful or consequential, so we overlook the possibly vast root system beneath it. These roots are poisonous to the Word in the soil of our hearts in more ways than we realize. Some roots are thick, some are very fragile and thin. The Holy Spirit knows the seeds in our hearts and how to handle them — use His guidance on how to confront each one when uprooting it from the soil.

2. Your roots can have baggage. There were some weeds I’d pull up with that came up nice and clean, the bare roots showing little evidence of the fact they’d been joined with the dirt seconds before. Then other weeds came up with complete chunks of dirt attached. It was messy, and even when I tried to shake the dirt off, there was complete entanglement of the roots and the dirt. It left the ground with a big hole in it, and left that soil unusable for further planting. Sometimes we give in to sin, in the forms of anger, resentment, etc, thinking they are just little seeds that we can uproot later when we feel no longer inclined to them. But once seeds are planted, they became rooted in the soil of your heart. It grows to involve part of who you are. Don’t give even the smallest sins that much power or place to effect your heart in such a way.

3. Oftentimes, one root is connected to other roots in the soil. In my experience, I would go to pull one weed, and end up uprooting several in the process because they were all connected. Several instances, they were totally different weeds. The same soil can have many different kinds of roots growing in it. When we let seeds grow in our hearts, good or bad, they became intertwined with the seeds planted in the same soil around them. That’s part of what the Bible is talking about when it says the the seed of the Word was uprooted because it was entangled with thorns. Lack of maintenance in the garden of your heart means that there could very well be weeds choking out the effectiveness and fruit of the Word God in your life, the roots entangling with the other issues of your heart. For example, faith can be planted in your heart, but if the weed of fear is present, then faith can’t grow with it, because faith does not work with fear. Light cannot abide with darkness. The entanglement of the two ceases the growth of the one.

In my gardening, there was one root I pulled that looked at first like I was just pulling it out of its one area, but all the sudden the soil around the whole flower bed shifted as I pulled it out. It affected at least a foot around the place where I had pulled the seemingly small weed. Who knew it’s root system was so wide-spread, and affected much more of the area than I would have thought? Again, one root can affect so much more than just its own plant.

4. When pulling a weed, you have to get the whole root. I learned this even as a young girl pulling weeds in my Mom’s garden. Many times when I’d go to pull one up, it would break off right at the stem, leaving the whole root system under the soil untouched. You have to dig deeper to get at the roots again, and very carefully and sensitively pull out its delicate trails through the dirt. There were instances where I had to repeat this several times to finally get to the last root. Because seriously, who wants those weeds coming back after all that work? Don’t just deal with the issues of your heart in a superficial manner, addressing only the leaves that can be seen. Dig to the root and let God work in deep parts of the soil. Only with His help can we truly uproot every weed that has lodged itself in our souls.

5. And lastly, though it be obvious, it is still true — as beautiful and manicured as a garden looks once it’s been weeded, new weeds can always grow if it is once again left unattended. Hence, my weekend project. Our yard had been unattended in the process of the move, and there was evidence of it in every flower bed. So you pulled weeds in your heart last week, and you planted some beautiful seeds of the Word yesterday? That is wonderful and admirable! But keep going. Keep pruning, watering, observing. Be attentive, and alert. Paul said he never looked back at what he had done yesterday, but always kept looking forward (Philippians 3:13).

I won’t even get into watering, seeing as there are 3 beautiful flower-filled pots at my front door crying for water because I always forget to rain it down on them with the cute green watering can I just bought. Turns out there are so many facets to this gardening thing!

To summarize the thoughts on this subject…judge yourself. Judge your heart. Prune. Guard. Plant. Maintain. Daily garden. Daily sharpen. And be diligent about it all!! (Proverbs 4:23) Take thought to what you let root in your soil! Be good ground. Clear out the weeds, uproot them from the very bottom. Then you’ll be the seed that can grow from here to Heaven with a strong and beautiful multi-fold return unto the Lord.

How beautiful the garden of your heart is to the Lord. How pleased He is with you for everything you do unto Him in your life. You have grace for this beautiful journey today!

And no, this isn’t my garden….yet 🙂