Beautiful Gardens Begin With Clearing the Land

"Beautiful gardens begin with the violence of clearing the land." —Paul David Tripp

Wow! That's kind of deep. It's also a little frightening when you're thinking about the garden of your life! Have you ever thought of your life as a beautiful garden? That's the way God sees it. He doesn't see all the messy. He looks past that and sees a garden being made beautiful. 

Beautiful gardens though begin with a lot of clearing. It's not easy work and some gardens need more clearing than others. Some take longer to clear. Some have more weeds, the ground is rocky. But there is grace for the clearing! There is rescuing grace for all this messy clearing. For all the plowing, the turning over, the weed pulling ugliness there is grace. 

“The stinging hurt of grace is at the same time the rescuing help of grace. Beautiful gardens begin with the violence of clearing the land.

​A trail of broken things may not be God’s punishment, but His faithfulness in removing all the things that are in the way of the progress of His work of grace.

God blessing you with the grace of His comfort should not be confused with Him making your life comfortable. The God of all Comfort will lead you into what is uncomfortable in pursuit of what is best.” —Paul David Tripp

God is creating beautiful gardens with our lives. Do you ever feel like your story has been a trail of broken pieces? Does it seem like broken pieces of a puzzle that makes no sense?

​It's entirely possible that God, in His faithfulness, is removing all the obstacles, the weeds, the stones to create a beautiful garden. Those obstacles that prohibit the progress of making you more like Him have to be plowing up, turning over, and pulling like weeds. But there is grace. The broken way IS the best way. It's the only way. And there is grace for the journey!

​We should never however confuse grace with Him making our lives comfortable. I love the last sentence of Paul Tripp's quote here, "The God of all Comfort will lead you into what is uncomfortable in pursuit of what is best.” Grace makes it possible, but it doesn't necessarily make it comfortable, pleasant. or easy.

​This garden, this beautiful garden of your story, is being written for you. It's being written line by line, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter, for your good and for God's glory.

If you're into gardening, or grace, or forgiveness, you might also enjoy this post There Are Worms in My Garden of Unforgivingness, although the post is actually less about gardening and more about cultivating the work of forgiveness in our own lives. Forgiveness is work! It can be difficult work, and sometimes it must be performed over and over and over again. At the same time though, forgiveness sets us free and it give us the opportunity to see the offender as God sees them.

Have you ever thought of your life as a beautiful garden, and have you personally experienced the clearing?