My coworker and I were working in one of the cold frames. I'm not even sure anymore what our job was that day. Weeding? Sorting plants? Condensing the beds to make room for new trees? I don't remember.
What I do remember, however, is that my coworker called out to me, "Look at this tree! It looks all beautiful in the outside, but it is all brown and dead on the inside!" I walked over to him, and saw he was right. On the outside, the tree looked beautifully green. It looked like a healthy plant. But once I pulled some branches aside, I saw the inside: ugly, dry, and brown. Was it supposed to be that way? Are some trees only beautiful on the outside? I didn't know. I only worked at the nursery for a few weeks at that point, and there was much I still had to learn about the trees. However, my coworker's comment struck me. Is that not often true about us as well? We look beautiful on the outside. We live outwardly decent lives. We go to church, read the Bible, and have serious conversations. We might even attend Bible study groups, and teach Bible to our own children or to our students at school. We dress in a modest and decent way. But what about the inside? By nature, it is brown and dry inside. Ugly. Dead. Sinful. There is no life to be found! That outward "beauty" is just a cover of our sinful, lifeless heart inside! What a miracle if God, through grace, changes our heart inside! He can make our ugly, dead, sinful heart alive again. Then, our decent lives are not a way to try to cover up anymore, but a reflection of what lives on the inside.
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We were sitting on little stools in one of the cold frames. Before us was a whole bed of little trees. Some trees were alive, others were not. We had to sort the trees: the dead ones had to be thrown out, and the ones that were alive could stay.
As I was sorting the trees, and throwing out one tree after the other, I had to think of Judgment Day. On that day, God will also make a separation between the spiritually dead people and the spiritually alive people. The people who found life in Christ will go to eternal glory. The people who never found life in Christ will be cast away into everlasting punishment. It reminded me of the parable of the fish net (Matthew 13:47-50): Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Some trees were not dead, but did not look very healthy either. We were not sure whether to throw those trees out or not. Would they have potential? Would they maybe have a chance to survive yet? We weren't sure. We decided to keep them, and give them a little bit more time to see how they would develop. It made me think of how patient God is with us human beings. How many of us do not show signs of life yet? How many people are still spiritually dead? Yet, God is patient. He still gives more time to repent and believe the Gospel. He is longsuffering, even though we all deserve to be thrown out. It reminded me of the parable of the unfruitful fig tree: He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. The trees in our cold frame might get a little bit more time yet. However, if they die within the next few months, we will throw them out after all. Is that not the same with those who have not found life in Christ yet? As long as we are alive, God still gives us time of grace. However, there will come a day that no time of grace is given anymore; either when we die, or on Judgment Day. Then, those who still have not found life in Christ--despite all the warnings and calls God sends us--will be cast out forever. There wasn't much time to reflect. Since I was working with some coworkers, we quickly got into conversations with one another--and not necessarily deep conversations. Yet, the deep and solemn lessons stuck with me. We have pulled many, many weeds over the past few weeks. When I weed, I often compare weeds to sins. Just like weeds, sins are invasive. If we don't fight the weeds by pulling them or killing them, weeds can take over the whole pot, so that it is barely possible to see the tree in the pot anymore. Similarly, if we don't fight our sins (with God's help!) they will take over our whole lives.
There are many different kinds of weeds. Some are big, others are small. So it is with sin. True, in God's eyes all sins are equally bad. We deserve God's wrath for one little lie just as much as for mass murder. Yet, from a human perspective, there are big, obvious sins and sins which are not as obvious. Some weeds have deep roots. Don't our sins have deep roots as well? When the roots of those weeds are not pulled out, they grow back in no time. Is that not the same with sin? Some weeds, like the one we call "snap weed", have seeds. When they go into seed, the seeds pop out as soon as the weed is touched. The seeds then fall into other pots, which are then "contaminated" with those weeds as well. How often do we not "contaminate" and pull others along in our sins? It is best to pull the weeds out when they are still small. If they are left too long, they can grow into weeds which are almost as tall as us. So it is with sins: it is best to pull them out before they grow dangerously big. Think of David, for example. He looked at Bathsheba and desired to have her. If he would have pulled that sinful desire right away, he would not have slept with Bathsheba, and he would not have killed Uriah. (Of course, this is humanly speaking.) Some weeds are prickly, or they have thorns. If we don't wear gloves, we can hurt ourselves when we pull them out. It makes me think of those sins which hurt others--not only in a physical way, but also deep inside. How badly we can hurt others with the sins of our tongues, for example! After hours of weeding, some parts of the nursery look weed free again. However, looks are deceiving. If you look closely, you can see new weeds growing again. The battle with weeds is, so it seems, never ending. How true this is for sin! For God's people, the battle with sin seems never ending. "New" sins keep coming every day. Yet, there will come an end to this battle when they die! Then they will be forever with God in heaven, where there are no sins anymore! Do you know what struck me most when I thought about the weeds? Many of them look so pretty! One of our most invasive weeds has pretty, heart shaped leaves. Other weeds have beautiful colours or little, delicate flowers. Is that not the same with sin? Many sins are so attractive and enjoyable! How much pleasure do we, by nature, find in sin! I would not be able to fight the weeds in the nursery on my own. We need a whole team of sprayers and weeders to conquer the weeds. We also cannot fight our sins on our own. We need help... from Above! Weeds are unavoidable when working in a nursery. We encounter all sorts and kinds of weeds: big weeds, small weeds, seedy weeds, prickly weeds, deeply-rooted weeds, etc. Needless to say, weeding is a frequently recurring task for the nursery workers.
Personally, I don't mind weeding. It can be a very soothing activity. It is a great time to reflect upon things, to let my thoughts go, to put earphones in and listen to a sermon, or to have a good conversation with some of my fellow workers. However, for some people the weeding quickly becomes monotonous. One of the young boys, who worked with us in summer holidays, was quite sick of pulling weed after weed, for weeks on end. "Why do weeds even have to grow?" he exclaimed, rather frustrated, as he pulled another big weed. I could understand his frustration. Weeding is not the most exciting thing to do in your summer holidays, especially not since the weeds grow back in no time, making the weeding seem endless. "Because of Adam's fall in Paradise," I answered. Having the same Christian background as me, he understood right away. "Yeah, I guess that's actually true," he said. Later, I reflected on the answer I had given. True, weeds started growing after Adam's fall in Paradise. Yet, was it not an easy way out to blame Adam? Adam was not the only one who sinned. I sinned as well. Just like Adam, I robbed God of His honour. I am to blame for all those weeds as well. As I looked around and saw all the weeds, it made me silent for a moment. All those weeds are growing there because of sin, including my sin. I realized I really had no reason to complain about weeding anymore. In all honesty, I definitely don't always think of this deep lesson when I am weeding. I still grumble at the weeds sometimes. I can still get frustrated when I see weeds growing in places where we just recently weeded. I still think it would be nice to have a weed-free nursery. But once in a while, it makes me silent again: all those weeds, because of our sins... There are so many spiritual lessons to be drawn from nature! Since I work in a nursery with hundreds of different trees, I am sometimes allowed to quietly reflect upon some of those lessons. In this series of blogs I hope to share some of the spiritual lessons.
This week, we finished grafting maples for this season. The grafting process amazes me. We collect branches (scion wood) from maple trees. Those pieces of scion wood are cut off from their current tree. We then take an understock tree. This is a tree with a strong stem. We make a cut into this tree, and stick the scion wood into this cut. We then tie a band around the understock tree and the scion wood, to keep it together. If the graft is successful, the sap from the understock tree will go into the scion wood, and the piece of scion wood will grow into a tall, strong tree. The scion wood is cut off from one tree, and ingrafted into another tree. What a rich image this is of sinners, who are cut off from Adam, and ingrafted into Christ! No, I did not come up with this application myself. Doesn't our Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 7 speak of being ingrafted into Christ by a true faith? Just like the scion wood (branch) gets cut off from tree, sinners get cut off from Adam. The understock tree, into which the scion wood gets ingrafted, represents Christ. Without the understock tree, this cut off piece of scion wood has no chance of living. But the understock tree gives it life and new growth! So it is with Christ. Sinners cannot live, unless they are ingrafted into Christ, unless they belong to Christ. I have heard this image of being ingrafted into Christ very often, since I heard sermons about the Heidelberg Catechism year after year. Yet, since I am a grafter myself, this image became even more lively. I marveled even more about the deep meaning of this image. And there was one thing I never realized before, but know now that I am a grafter: In order for the scion wood to be ingrafted into the understock tree, the understock tree needs to be cut as well. What a deep lesson lies in that! In order for a sinner to be ingrafted into Christ, Christ needed to be wounded as well. He had to suffer great pain and agony. He had to bleed. He had to die. Without His wounds, without His suffering, without His pain and agony, and without His blood, He could never give life to sinners. Words fail to describe Christ's sacrifice for His people! Since I work in the nursery, I have grafted many trees already. Not every tree survives. Sometimes, we look at our grafted trees a few months later, and a whole bunch of trees have died. There are a variety of reasons for these unsuccessful grafts: the cambium layers of the scion wood and understock tree might not line up well enough, the weather or greenhouse environment might not be favourable, the survival rate of a particular type of tree might be very low, etc. However, when sinners are ingrafted into Christ, the graft will never fail. Those sinners will live. They will live forever with Christ, who suffered and was wounded to give them life! Note: the pictures below were taken in December, 2021, during our spruce grafting season. |
AuthorHi! My name is Marina. Besides running this website, I am also a teacher, and I work in a nursery with a great variety of trees. On this page, I like to reflect on some "lessons from nature". ArchivesCategories |