Every spring, we all get the urge to start planting flowers around the house. For the home gardener, it’s a way to celebrate the end of winter and an excuse to play outside in the sunshine.

But before any of the fun stuff happens – the planting, mulching, and watering – first comes the grungy job of preparing the soil. 

An experienced gardener knows the quality of your foliage depends on your prep work. If you don’t properly prepare the soil, your plants won’t be as healthy as they should.

Prepping the soil takes effort.  It requires getting down and dirty with the earth: crawling through the flower bed, pulling weeds out by the roots, and clearing out all of the debris cluttering the area.

Then you dig in and turn the soil with a spading fork. After that you finish crumbling the soil with a cultivator, then you rake it into a smooth bed. Now you are ready to plant.

After planting, mulching, and watering, it’s a great feeling to stand back and admire your work. And there is a whole season of pleasure ahead as you watch your garden grow and flourish in the sun.

There is a great life lesson for us in this ritual of springtime gardening.

If you are a Christian, then you are a child of God, the King and Creator of the universe.

As your life goes on, you will discover that he has plans for you. His plans usually involve preparing you to do new things with your life, whether you like it or not.

He is the Heavenly Father. We are the earthly kids. He gets to make the plans. Our job is to listen and cooperate.

We all go through different seasons in our lives, and God has reasons for everything he does with us. But this can be stressful for us, since we usually don’t understand what God is up to.

So, when he gets ready to plant some new improvements into your character, he finds it necessary to clean the weeds, debris and other crud out of your life.

You know the things I’m talking about, don’t make me draw you a picture.

Once God begins to weed your life, it can make you pretty uncomfortable.  Often it is downright irritating. Then, after all of that annoying weeding, comes the cultivating! Ouch! I really dislike this part.

All of a sudden God is stirring up your world in ways you never anticipated. He’s yanking out roots of bad habits, shredding your pre-conceived notions, and chopping up your hard-heartedness.

In due time this stressful process is finished, and you are finally ready to receive what God has prepared for you.

In place of all the debris and clutter you had accumulated in your life, God plants a new direction for service that you may never have thought about before.

(This should come as no surprise, him being all-knowing and us being all-ignorant.)

Now, instead of a life as useless as a weed-choked flower bed, you exude a beautiful new fragrance. You are ready to share God’s love in new and exciting ways. You are prepared to grow and bear fruit that will bless other people and please God.

All of the commotion that you so wished to avoid was actually the best thing that could have happened to you.

As sinful human beings, we don’t always appreciate having our character flaws sifted through by an intrusive Creator. But we need to “get over it” because God knows more than we do.

He has graciously decided to use us as part of his eternal plan. And he is determined to make us into productive and useful ambassadors for his kingdom.

So when God starts stirring things up in your life, don’t fight it. He is up to something good. He is cultivating you for a reason.

A fresh season in your life is just ahead, and if you cooperate with him, God will make you blossom.