Day 1--On Tares and Seasons

The lovely but relentless creep of Morning Glories....

"Unger says that the most common tare found in grainfields in the Holy Land is bearded darnel, “a poisonous grass, almost indistinguishable from wheat while the two are growing into blade. But when they come into ear, they can be separated without difficulty.”"  -Believer's Bible Commentary

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares haunts me in my garden.  It floats to my conscious when I pull bunches of weeds, Morning Glories in particular.

Morning Glories trouble me now because years ago my husband warned me about them.  I didn't listen.  I thought their colorful blooms were cheerful and still do.  But, ten years later, I recognize that even a good thing can be bad if not checked.  These guys are prolific, exceptional in their reproductive capacities.  I'm convinced we could feed the masses and put a dent in hunger if they could only yield a useful crop.

Their seed is amazingly adaptable.  It can germinate in any number of temperatures and conditions. In fact, whatever time I turn the soil for whatever reason, mid-spring on, I'm guaranteed to sprout a new crop of them.

I've learned much about pulling Morning Glories through the years.  One useful thing is to let them grow large enough until it's worth your while to pull them.  Yes, it is satisfying to feel the clean pluck of a baby morning glory, but it's also tedious to pluck and pluck....and puck their starter leaves.  =Things go easier if you bide your time a bit, let them grow until they are bigger when you can grab a fist full of their sturdy stems in one swoop and accomplish the same.  The collective grab sure beats the individual pull.

Morning Glories,  *sigh* the work ahead...

From Morning Glories and from the Parable of the Wheat and Tares,  I've learned that there is value in waiting for the right stage to pull a weed.  I think of this often when pulling them, of the timing of bad things....impostors...sin...evil....   As much as I'd like to blast them all out at once and be done with the lot, it's not the way He designed this world.  Instead, timing here is key.

There is a time, as Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:  a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. -Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

I have to work hard to remember this, as I am, at times, an impatient person.  I prefer to geter' done as they say in the South.  And I live in an even more impatient culture.  We prefer to put our flowers in the ground when they are ready to bloom and pluck them up before they go to seed.  For the in-between of plants and life, we have little use or appreciation.

But, while in the garden, I'm reminded that God loves the seasons.  He built them into our world for a purpose--there are seasons in our garden, seasons in our lives.  There are optimal times, and ebb and flow, not just a peak.

I believe that life goes better when we live in awareness of His seasons.