Growing up I spent most my weekends at my best friend’s house, and I remember her dad always being outside. He had the most beautiful garden all around the house, with water fountains, fishponds and bird feeders everywhere. The sound and aromas coming from his garden was captivating and we loved spending time outside in it.
All of this obviously took a lot of work, he was always in the garage making things for the garden, or on his knees either pulling weeds or planting new life and colour. It had all types of funny looking plants and things, some with long lush leaves, some with thorns instead. There were sitting benches and steppingstones.
He had tiny fast-moving fish and big spotted slow-moving ones and many kinds of birds, each bringing their own song to the garden. It was beaming with life, all perfectly woven into a breath-taking colourful garden. Every single morning, just as the sun started giving the faintest bit of light to the garden, in the crisp cool air of the morning, before anyone was awake, he would go out into his garden and spend time with God. With his hands folded behind his back he would stroll through the garden and speak to God.
Isn’t this garden a good example of life, all the colours and textures and all the different kinds of beauty. Some parts soft and gentle, some parts harsh and sharp and everything uniquely intertwined. Life very much is like his garden, everything blooming in its own season, but say he would have focused all his attention on finding and pulling the weeds in his garden, say he was focused on removing everything harmful, everything bad and everything that would suck the life from his garden, spending all his free time cleaning his garden of these pests and weeds.
His garden will be pest free, but soon his birdfeeders will run out and the song will leave the garden, the fish will starve, the plants will die and the grass will dry out, even the hard thorny little guys will eventually wither and die, the shade will disappear and all the colours and every single thing that made it beautiful will slowly fade away while he spins and toils over those unwanted weeds. He would have done a lot of work and spent a lot of energy all for nothing.
What will we find if we look at the gardens of our lives? Are you too busy finding everything that is wrong with your day, year, life, kids, spouse and colleagues, that you simply just don’t have any time to do anything beautiful? Is your garden dry and harsh without colours and songs? Do you receive more than you give and complain more than you pray? The devil keeps us occupied with all the things that make us angry, sad, frustrated and unsatisfied.
Are we driven by self-centeredness in trying to have things according to our will, fighting anything that does not agree with it? We hammer and grind at everyone and everything that does not please us, and we have such passion doing so, but at the end of the day when the sun sets over our garden, what have we accomplished? Proverbs 18:21 reads: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” What have you been saying in your garden, what will grow where your words have fallen today?
Let us do away with these worthless efforts! Let us bring back the colour and song to our gardens! Dear brothers and sisters, it’s in our hands to make it a great and marvellous garden, it is our duty and privilege to plant new life and care for it so that others may see it and want what we have. It is not materialistic things! It is peace and love and kindness, patience, self-control, forgiveness and humility. It is putting others before yourself and not being a judge to anyone. It is giving a helping hand, buying a meal for a stranger, praying for a friend and more importantly an enemy! It is prayer, so much prayer! It is worship and thanksgiving, trust and obedience.
These are the ponds, benches and bird feeders, the big strong trees that give shade and all the colours and leaves. This is the soft green grass and the fountains of fresh water. Speak life and make effort to build a spectacular garden and the Giver of life, our Lord Jesus, will let it grow and it will prosper. Fellow South Africans, and to all of you in other countries facing the same battles, it is time to feed beauty, it is time to nurture what is good in our people, what is good in our communities! The media will always be feeding us with everything that is going wrong, all the hate and murder and violence and corruption, but who will give our garden colour if we do not spend our energy giving it life!
Yes, you are angry, tired and frustrated, but how has that been working out for you so far? Spend time doing things that matter, saying things that gives life! Darkness can only stay darkness if nobody picks up a match to light it up! Stop trying to fight darkness with darkness. Say positive things, encourage hope and tolerance. Make an effort to build something that will grow and inspire new life around you. Take hands to heal your communities not to come against it. BE the change you want to see around you. Mother Teresa left us with this poem (Anyway Poem):
“People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; It was never between you and them anyway.”
God bless, Miryna van As