MUSINGS

TENDING OUR FIELDS It was interesting to read recently the comment of an expert horticulturist on his garden, one which is quite famous because of the wide variety of plants, flowers and shrubs which it contains in quite a small area. He remarked, ‘I know that if I neglected this for a fortnight, nature would take over’. Once he neglected tending, weeding, watering, it would quickly become choked, weed-ridden and overgrown. It minds us of what Solomon says, “I went by the field of a sluggard, and by the vineyard of a man void of understanding; and lo, it was all grown over with thistles, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and its stone wall was broken down”, Proverbs 24: 30, 31.

What is the condition of your field, and mine? How quickly, because of what we are, nature can take over in our hearts and lives, and the weeds of what is selfish, earthly and worldly spring up. Let us therefore keep near to Christ and to the Holy Spirit, and not neglect the daily habits of prayer, communion, profitable reading, and watchfulness as to the “stone wall”—separation from what would defile and damage. If we are the Lord’s a divine work has begun in us. It is something most precious which is to be carefully nurtured and protected daily and hourly, for the Lord’s pleasure, and for our own happiness and blessing.

FCM