Pulling Up Trees

In the backyard of the home where I grew up and where I raised my children stood an American Elm tree. It was one of the last of its kind, untouched by Dutch Elm Disease. It shaded the house and yard all summer long.

But every spring it sent out thousands of seeds. As long as those seeds landed on the lawn, I didn’t care. But an awful lot of them landed in the gardens around the yard. And began to sprout.

I can remember long days moving slowly around the garden pulling up the seedlings one by one. It got so that when I closed my eyes at night, all I could see was tiny two-leaf trees. So many, many, tiny trees…

Then one day when I had finished a section, I stepped back for a look. From a distance I could hardly see the seedlings. And now I noticed the flowers. There were flowers blooming in the section I just finished. And I had been too focused on the trees to even notice.

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Sometimes we focus too much on the weedy trees in our lives, spending all our energy trying to eradicate some fault or habit and shaming ourselves when we fail. Habits and faults are easier to handle when they are small, true. But while it is important to clean up our act (so to speak) we can miss the beautiful things that are growing in us, blooms of grace and love. There are always going to be weeds, but we are works in progress, just like my garden. The Bible says, “There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.” (Philippians 1:6 MSG)

So, Lord, I will continue to pull the weeds, but I will also celebrate Your work in me. And I will be patient with myself, because “God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT) And that’s a good thing to remember.