Ecclesiastes 3 – Everything Has Its Time
Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that everything has its season.
Lessons From The Garden
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the garden – cleaning, weeding,
cutting the grass, planting, and watering. As I’ve been diving into all these different tasks with
the goal to have a garden that is both beautiful and functional this summer, I’ve had a couple
of revelations that I wanted to share with you all.
How important it is to see the big picture.
The first step to do when it’s time to tend to the garden in the spring, at least up here in the north where we have snowy and cold winters, is cleaning. Cleaning out what was hidden under the snow. Clearing out the old leaves from the fall, and also taking a look at if there was any damage done by the winter or spring storms.
This task is not my personal favorite, but it helps to remember that this is a necessary step that will give fruit in beauty and order later on.
Sometimes it’s maybe easy for us to forget why we do things and how it connects to something bigger, something that we really want. Let’s say for example doing laundry.
Laundry is something that feels like it’s never-ending but the fruits of doing it are many – you save
money, you are more healthy, you feel and look better in clean clothes. In the end, doing laundry is an important step in having a functional life, and a life that can honor God.
It’s essential to keep the big picture in mind no matter what we do. To remember the why
in the middle of the mundane. It’s all connected!
It’s important to prepare the ground before the seeds are planted.
It would be tempting to just walk into the garden, place some seeds in the ground, and then just wait, but that is rarely how it works. The soil needs to be turned, and softened, weeds and rocks need to be removed, we need to add fertilizer, and so on.
In reality, we usually spend maybe ninety percent of our time preparing the ground and ten percent actually planting the seeds. If the ground is well prepared the seed will be able to bear much more fruit.
Sometimes in our lives and our walks with God, we enter seasons where we would like to speed things up and see fruit in different areas of our lives. But for the fruit to be good and also lasting it’s key that we allow God to prepare us for what is to come.
Maybe there are some rocks and some weeds in our lives that need to be removed. Maybe we have a hard heart in some area and it needs to be softened for the seed to be able to go deeper and also
grow strong roots.
The time of preparation might be long, but then it’s good to remember that the time of planting and bearing fruit will be a lot easier and most likely faster.
Trust God in all times and seasons. He created nature to function in this way, and He created us to function in this way.
Different plants need different things to flourish
Some plants like the sun, and some will grow better in the shade. Some plants need some time indoors before they go out in the ground, and some don’t. The times of planting are also different for different plants, some go in the ground in the fall, some in early spring or later towards the summer.
If all plants were treated the same some would flourish well, some not at all. The Bible talks about us being the body of Christ, and that we are all different. We all have different gifts and talents and therefore we also need different things to be able to flourish.
Some need more time until you can see growth, but then they bear fruit year after year. Some people respond quickly to change, others need time.
God has created each one of us differently and comparison is a big killer of joy. Maybe the different plants and trees this year can serve as a reminder that we are actually not made to be exactly the same, but the ones God has created us to be.
Cutting things off so they can bear more fruit later
Cutting off branches of a tree or a bush seems counterproductive at the moment when you do it, the plant becomes smaller and often looks quite ugly after it has been pruned. In reality, it does need to happen, so the fruit or the flowers will be bigger and stronger later on. Pruning is necessary.
“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he
John 15:2
prunes so that it will be even more fruitful”
Jesus also takes the example of pruning in John chapter fifteen, and he says that even the branches that will bear fruit must be pruned so they later will be able to be even more fruitful.
Times of pruning in our lives are usually a bit painful, and we might look at our lives and feel like it’s worse than when we started. Maybe we also don’t fully understand that what is happening to us is that we are being pruned and it’s hard to see the purpose of what is going on.
It’s comforting to know that we are not the ones in charge of the fruit, we just need to remain in Him. Our heart posture towards God will always be more important than the amount of fruit we can see.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we
Galatians 6:9
do not give up.”
What Is God Speaking In This Season Of Gardening?
I encourage you, fellow gardeners, to be open to letting God speak to you in this season of gardening. These were just a few thoughts and revelations that I’ve had, but I’m convinced there is so much more truth to discover.
Taking care of creation is something that is very close to our original design and I believe it also helps us to ground ourselves, to stop, and to listen.
God wants to speak to you. And as your hands get dirtier and your mind is focused on a simple task and not racing you might find that it gets easier to hear what is on His mind.
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