Upward growth

If you’ve been following along, you know that I have overcome my inertia and started a garden. I have bought seeds, set aside a place to grow them, tilled the ground to battle weeds, fenced the area to combat predators and given the seeds time and water for their transformation. I now have sugar snaps growing in my garden! Yay!! Success!!

I get to celebrate for about two weeks before I realize that those little sugar snap plants are not growing up right. They are sending out tendrils searching for something to cling to and are finding nothing but each other. They are becoming entangled with each other and weighing each other down, falling to the ground instead of reaching to the sky. The plants need some structure around them; they need support.

The traditional structures for peas and beans are bean poles. I use tomato cages, which work just as well. As soon as I place a tomato cage over or near one of the young plants, those tender tendrils reach out and latch on, wrapping around and around the sturdy bars and holding on as if their lives depend on it. Maybe it does.

Without structure or support, the sugar snaps wrap themselves around each other. Instead of growing upward, they bring each other down. It’s like the drowning person who climbs upon his rescuer, drowning them both.

But with the structure, with the support, the sugar snaps grow toward the sun. They hold on to the cage and depend on it for support. Reaching upward, there is plenty of space for growth. Success for one plant does not mean failure for another. With the proper structure and support, all the plants can thrive.

Are you with me here?

I need God’s Word. Without God’s Word as structure and support for my growth, I will reach out to other people and cling to them. My dependence on them will not only limit my growth, it may also limit theirs. A Christian community that clings to a person instead of clinging to the Word of God can sometimes slip into cult status. And if that person to whom we are clinging is not himself clinging to the Word of God, the entire community can fail.

The only way a person or a group of people can ensure healthy Christian growth is to have the Bible ever present as a source of support and The Truth to which everyone can hold fast.

The Lord your God you shall follow, Him alone you shall fear, His commandments you shall keep, His voice you shall obey, Him you shall serve, and to Him you shall hold fast. Deuteronomy 13:4 (See also 2 Timothy 3:15-16)

Sugar snaps thrive best when lots of them are growing together, each holding on to the cage nearest them. Several plants use the same cage, but they are individually clinging to it; growing together. Perhaps this is how the church thrives best as well. Lots of us growing together; each of us individually holding on to the Word.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. Proverbs 3:5

And upward growth is critical. Upward growth allows the plants to absorb as much of the sun as possible and ensures their fruit will be visible and accessible. And accessing that fruit is the main reason I planted those sugar snaps.

You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. John 15:16

So I get those tomato cages around and among my sugar snaps as soon as possible; I want those plants growing in the right direction from the beginning. There is fruit at stake.

If you are enjoying this, please share it with your friends. Subscribers and followers will be notified by WordPress when a new post is available. Thanks for sharing your time with me!

Betsy

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Romans 8:38-39