Matthew 13:22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the Word. But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful.
The garlic was in there somewhere. We knew it, but it was hard to see proof. The weeds had overgrown the patch to the point that the garlic plants were mostly obscured.
Last fall, I had carefully roto-tilled a section of ground roughly ten feet by five feet. We put weed cloth over it for the winter. In the spring, my wife planted garlic. Then life happened.
Some health issues kept my wife out of the garden as much as she wanted. I got busy with many things. The garlic patch was neglected for months. Recently my wife decided it was time to rescue the garlic and I was drafted into the project.
A particularly nasty weed had taken over. The individual weeds were sometimes over four feet tall with cruel little thorns that sometimes poked through gloves. The weeds outnumbered the garlic something like ten to one.
I went in first, pulling the weeds one by one. My wife followed after me harvesting the garlic bulbs my weeding uncovered. It was hard, at times painful, and eventually disappointing work. It was also a wonderful object lesson on the insidious, damaging effects of unchecked sin in a Christian’s life.
The garlic didn’t cease to be garlic because of the weeds. We did get a harvest. The weeds however, sucked much of the nutrients out of the soil so the garlic we harvested was small and pitiful. The bulbs were less than half the size of what we had dug up the year before.
Sin, left to grow in a Christian, has almost exactly the same affect. The Christian doesn’t stop being a child of God, but sin hinders the Christian life making it significantly less fruitful. The plants produced garlic but in smaller quantity and quality that they should have. The Christian life choked by sin makes less of an impact for Christ than they should.
As the weeds hid the garlic from view, sin dims the light that the Christian is supposed to be to the world. God designed the Christian life to be a testimony of His love, mercy, and grace. Sin obscures those qualities so those around us do not get the full benefit of our testimony.
Getting rid of sin is much harder and more painful than keeping it under control. Had we spent even an hour per week weeding the garlic patch it would have remained a manageable job. By allowing the weeds to grow wild, I had to expend more energy and endure more pricks than I needed to. Unfettered sin grows deep roots and usually requires heartache and effort to get rid of it.
Thank You Lord for the garlic that grew. We will enjoy it. Forgive us for not being good stewards of the resources You provided for us. Thank You also, for the reminder that we need to watch our hearts closely to makes sure sin does not get a foothold and take root!