Monday, September 17, 2007

Grass

I'm about to sell my house, and so today I cut my grass to make it look better. As I cut the grass, the new grass underneath was exposed. It was new, clean, fresh and untouched. It had that fresh smell you associate with freshly cut grass.

I was thinking that this is just like us.

We are all like the grass. There are times in our lives when things are difficult. When we get so caught up in our own lives that things get in the way. When God becomes marginalised. When we start doing things that separate us from God. Things get dirty, tangled and bad things start to grow, like weeds in a garden or long grass.

We let things get in the way.

The long grass looks messy, dirty, uncared for, abandoned. Our hearts and our lives can start to appear or feel like that if we distance ourselves too much from God.

But God doesn't give up on us.

When I was cutting the grass, the grass was so long that it needed trimming before it could properly be cut. I needed to use a trimmer first. There are some weeds that have such a strong root that it takes a long time to get to the root of them

When we invite Jesus back into our lives, we need Him to deal with all the surface stuff first, before He can really get to work on our hearts and make us into that flat cut grass. That's what He does.

He goes to work on all the superficial things that have separated us from God, that have clouded our vision of Him. He gives us a glimpse of Him. Then He really gets to work on the roots and works and works at them. He bit by bit cuts away all the things blocking us from Him and starts to transform us into the beautiful people He originally meant us to be.

Its a long job. It takes time. Every so often we allow things to get in the way. But the more we go back to God, the less long the grass will get. If we put Jesus at the centre every day, and every day depend on Him and go to Him, and allow Him to deal with every circumstance and situation, the less weeds will take root and the shorter the work it will take for Him to cut those things away.

Put Jesus in the centre of your life and receive the new life and transformation He can bring you. Allow Him to cut the long grass out of your life, and then with His help do your best to make sure that the long grass doesn't come back.