Lessons From My GardenChikamu

God Wastes Nothing

In my gardening practice I keep a compost pile. This is a specific location where grass clippings, fallen leaves, leftover scraps from kitchen preparation of vegetables and fruits, spent coffee grounds, eggshells, and even ashes from the fireplace are regularly collected and dumped into a pile. 

After several months all that discarded waste goes through an amazing process. Those apple cores, rotten tomatoes, and limp celery—all those useless scraps— decompose and disintegrate into dark, loamy soil. What a transformation! 

I remember one year before I could haul that rich soil to my garden, the pile began sprouting a plant, lush with deep green leaves. Curiosity won out, so I left it in the compost pile, recognizing the beginning leaves to be a melon or vining squash. Soon that plant grew more and more large, green leaves and then vibrant yellow flowers eventually developing into a large vine with no disease or insect damage. Before long those yellow flowers turned into tiny squash which continued to grow and thrive. From that one vine that grew from a pile of waste, I harvested thirteen large butternut squash!

What a lesson this is for us. The pile of our disappointments and regrets, our wrong choices and bad decisions, all the mess of our guilt and shame Jesus took upon Himself! The weight of our sin has been nailed to His cross and no longer holds power over us. Through His victorious resurrection He offers us an unbelievably amazing transformation—from death, to a rich and fruitful life. We have been given a new beginning, a new story!

You are not the junk of your past. You are not the heap of your problems. You are a perfectly new and transformed creation in Christ and in lovingkindness He offers new mercies every morning! 

Are you held back by the pain of the past or are you planted in good soil? You get to decide. 

Rise up from that heap of regret! Your God wastes nothing! What good fruit is He growing from the “garbage pile” of your life?