A Time to Uproot

A Time to Uproot

For everything there is a season,

and a time for every purpose under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot.

Ecclesiastes 3:1,2

On the next street over from mine, there is a lovely white house with the most beautiful yard in the neighborhood - trees, shrubs, flowers, and pristine green grass always well-manicured.  The house is owned by a Puerto Rican couple who do all of the gardening themselves.  If the husband is out working in the front yard when I am walking the neighborhood, we chat and share gardening knowledge.

One early spring day, he saw me out walking and waved me over.  In his hand was a beautiful pink flowering plant from his front flower garden.  He offered to share four plants with me, and I eagerly accepted.  I had an old stump at the front corner of my yard with three well-established hydrangeas and a bare section just waiting for my new treasures. 

Due to abundant rain, I didn’t have a reason to check on my new pink flowers and it was well into June when I went out to weed.  I was shocked to find pink flowers everywhere: overspreading the ground, in the old stump, covering the hydrangeas, and growing down into the lawn.  My “treasures” were invasive bullies.  Planting those flowers took me 20 minutes.  Uprooting them took me days, months – actually, another season before I could eradicate them completely.

What we plant in our hearts and minds will either improve the space, or overtake our lives.  The psalmist advised, “I have hidden Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against You” [Psalm 119:11].  

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Change my heart, O God, make it ever true.

Change my heart, O God, may I be like you.

You are the Potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me, that is what I pray.

Change my heart, O God, make it ever true.

Change my heart, O God, may I be like you.

The Faith We Sing, No. 2152