Fiona Veitch Smith

The Messy Garden

In my busy life of writing, teaching, housework and childcare there’s one place I find a haven: my garden. My husband’s not much of a gardener, the dog only visits to do its business and my nearly-three-year-old daughter is currently more interested in her indoor Christmas toys than the leaf-soaked slide and waterlogged sandpit. The garden is my place. I am responsible for its upkeep and care. And when things get out of hand, it’s my fault.

Things are out of hand at the moment. I didn’t manage to give the lawn that final trim in November - partly due to rain, partly due to my over-busy work schedule. Then in December I was off on a family holiday in South Africa (don’t get me started on the sunshine, clivias and hibiscus!). So the roses are scraggly, the flowerbeds weedy and the un-raked leaves a soggy cover for the squishy dog poo underneath. And thanks to the dog (a seven-month old border collie / greyhound mix) I doubt that any of my carefully planted bulbs will spring to life this year in my flowerbed under the Whitebeam tree.

I have to face it - I’m not a very good gardener. I have lots of ideas and dreams and plans, but they don’t often work out. I still haven’t managed to grow sweetpeas, I planted bamboo in the wrong place and now it won’t grow and I pulled out a whole lot of ‘weeds’ only to discover they were actually St John’s Wort and would have given a stunning display later in the season. I may not be a very good gardener, but I can’t imagine my life without it.

God has placed me in this garden

It’s the same with my relationship with God. I’m not a very good Christian but I can’t imagine my life without Him. I get some stuff wrong and some stuff right. There are some pretty patches and some dull patches. From a distance I don’t look too bad, but get up close and you’ll see the scrappy bits. But thankfully, there’s a senior gardener I can turn to. God has placed me in this garden and I’ll do my best to look after it. But when things go wrong, as they invariably do, I can ask Him for help. And sometimes, even if I don’t ask Him, He will surprise me with His grace. Flowers will grow where I didn’t know they’d been planted, rotting compost brings new life and that transplanted palm that I thought was dead is beginning to sprout again.

Flowers and Weeds

My garden has flowers and weeds. Jesus tells a story about this which is recorded in the Bible (Matthew 13:24 - 30). A gardener goes to his master and tells him that the wheat that was planted is now infested with weeds. He asks if he should pull up the weeds. No, says the master, if you do that you might destroy the wheat as well. Leave it to the harvest and we will separate the two then. My life will always be a mix of good and bad. Thankfully, I can trust God to sort it all out in the end.

This is the first in a series of the Gardener’s Gospel. I plan to give you regular updates letting you know how it’s going in my garden and hope that you will be encouraged to keep on working in yours. Please feel free to leave comments below and let other readers know how it’s going in your garden.

Happy New Year!

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