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Yesterday I Indulged A Wish

by Susan Hanson  
5/31/2020 / Christian Living

Yesterday I Indulged A Wish

 

Yesterday I indulged a wish I have had for many years – to have enough lavender so that I could have a big bouquet in the house and still have enough to make things with. As I indulged this long-time wish, I was reminded of certain principles we find in God’s Word.

 

This is the story of the lavender and the canning jar.

 

There is a lavender plant, which I lovingly tucked into its new home beside my house about eight years ago or thereabouts.

I became a Christian in 1972. The first twenty-one years of my life had been spent being a “good person” -- until I was tucked into my new life in Christ. I was suddenly confronted with something I had never heard of before:     

³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ John 3:3-7 (NASB)

 

 

I wanted my new little plant to grow fast and big and strong and to smell up the whole neighborhood.

                        Likewise, God wants us to grow and mature as His children.

2 Peter 3:18 (NASB) ¹⁸ but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

 

I nurtured that little plant, but it just barely hung on, year after year. For several years I dug up around it, added sand to loosen the clay soil so dominant around here, and added a bit of compost tea occasionally for nutrition.

My next 40 years or so as a “born again Christian” were spent in superficial, sporadic Bible reading and study and calling it good enough. It was not my best, and it was not good enough.

            2 Timothy 2:15-16 (AMP)

¹⁵ Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth. ¹⁶ But avoid all irreverent babble and godless chatter [with its profane, empty words], for it will lead to further ungodliness

 

The plant showed slight growth, but it was minimal and awfully slow. Now, it just so happened that there was a small Bradford Pear tree out on that end of the house too, a pretty tree for about a week every spring. It had no such difficulty growing as the little lavender plant did.

As the pear tree was attractive but hindered the growth of the lavender, my own compromising with what I had always done, because it wasn’t bad – murder, stealing, etc. I didn’t even consider that it might be sin because it was so benign. Hidden sin or what we would humanly consider as harmless, maybe even pleasant, sin, will hinder our spiritual health. We must choose.

            Hebrews 11:25 (AMP)

²⁵ because he preferred to endure the hardship of the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

 

Then came the day the Bradford Pear had to be cut down.

It wasn’t easy to turn away from some of those things in my life but sin must be acknowledged, confessed and repented of, to be eliminated from our lives.

            Psalm 19:12-13 (NASB)

¹² Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.
¹³ Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins;
Let them not rule over me;
Then I will be ^[a]blameless,
And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.

Footnotes: ^[a]Psalm 19:13 Lit complete

 

I was a little sad to see the tree go since it really was a beautiful sight in early spring, for a short while.

                        And I thought of Lot’s wife, looking back and becoming a pillar of salt.

            Genesis 19:26 (AMP)

²⁶ But Lot’s wife, from behind him, [foolishly, longingly] looked [back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience], and she became a pillar of salt.

 

It wasn’t easily noticeable that the tree was shading the much more useful lavender plant too much – until it was gone.

Some sin is like that tree, not horrible (by our corrupt human standards) so the effects aren’t seen. Or maybe it is something that is even pleasant and seeming to hurt no one. But hindsight is always 20/20.

“…every sin you commit hurts someone — including you. If you allow covetousness to take root in your soul, for example, it will hurt you, and turn you into a self-centered, greedy person. Every sin hurts someone, even if it’s only ourselves.”  Billy Graham, October 29, 2014

            1 John 1:9 (AMP)

⁹ If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].

 

This spring that old lavender grew into twice the plant it had been struggling to be for the last several years. So yesterday it was at the peak of readiness to harvest and I took my basket and scissors out to cut those long-awaited sweet-scented stems of tiny purple flowers.

 

Afterward, as I stood in my kitchen admiring my fragrant treasure and wondering what exactly I should do with them,  the old chipped canning jar came to mind. Obviously, it could never be used for canning again but I just couldn’t throw it away. I thought, “if God can use me as cracked, chipped, and damaged as I am, surely I can find a use for this poor old jar that had faithfully preserved garden produce over many winters. And yesterday, I did!

 

Proverbs 19:21 (ESV)

²¹ Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
    but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

 

Ephesians 2:10 (NASB)

¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. 

I was raised in church but always felt like I was missing something. Now the Word of God excites me! My curiosity enhances the pursuance of discernment. I have often felt discouraged, but not totally defeated knowing that in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

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