Clean

I was gardening yesterday as I thought about this word “Clean”. I had to clean a garden bed to make it presentable for myself and those who might visit us. Cleaning a garden is a process of pulling weeds and removing dead plants. I had to clean the bed in order to put in new plants. Removing weeds also means that water is not being used up by those plants that have no place in the garden.

I am what I would consider to be the original “lazy gardener” and if either of my grandfathers were to return I’m sure they would agree. Both of them were very good at gardening and it provided their families with food and even income for periods of their lives.

While pulling and replanting some plants I thought about us. I thought about how weeds are very similar to sins in our lives. They could also be called unclean spirits. Jesus cleans our lives by removing sins or unclean spirits. However He doesn’t just clean us up because if He did the Bible tells us in Luke 11:24-26 that we will end up with more problems than when we started. So as Jesus cleans us out He fills the empty places with His spirit. This is to prevent those empty places being fills with new sins or unclean spirits. It is the same in my garden, if the bare patches created by the removal of weeds and dead plants are not filled with new plants it won’t be long and I will find more and more weeds in those places. Acts 13:52 tells us “And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.” This doesn’t means that we will be weed free but we will be effective for God and bring beauty to those around us.