A Healing Home
On Sunday after dinner, I made some s’mores. One kiddo was struggling with the messy nature of the treat—so much that it was a huge distraction from the goodness itself. Finally, Joe said, “Just accept the fact that it’s going to be messy and you’ll enjoy it more.” Doesn’t that just apply to EVERYTHING? Relationships? Work? The Church? Growing as a human?
If you’re avoiding everything that’s messy, you’ll miss out on so much sweetness.
When life gets busy and out of balance, sometimes we neglect the aspects that aren’t immediate needs. Items don’t even make our to-do list if they’re not crying out for our attention. For example, sometime in mid-August, I was backing out of the driveway and noticed that our entire lawn had died. I guess when one is caring for small children, a small business, and other aspects of the home, and when the Tennessee summer is relentlessly parched, the entire lawn dies. There were some scraggly patches still holding on, and some areas of just dirt. Oops.
As a sometimes-responsible homeowner, I purchased a bag of grass seed. I spread it and watered regularly, yet my efforts weren’t as fruitful as I would expect. Eventually some seeds took hold and began to grow.
Perhaps if you’ve taken time to watch the grass grow, you can guess the next thing I’m going to tell you. The first seeds to take hold and begin to flourish were in the areas where some brown scraggly grass was still trying to survive in the first place.
Some of the seeds I scattered over hard, dry soil were blown away by the wind or washed away by the sprinkler, but they took hold where roots were still hanging on to some life. The ones that stayed in the dead places never grew.
I want you to consider this metaphor if you’re a person who wants to grow. It will be much harder to grow on your own, but if you can find some friends who want to grow too, you’ll be of great help to one another. You won’t thrive on the surface. You will need to dig down, receive nourishment, and be willing to break your little seed shell open to where the life exists. You’ll have to grow roots into the soil and send beauty into the world. And you’ll have to be on the lookout for little seeds on the loose. Catch them and pull them into your little cluster of thriving and beauty.
