My Salvation Garden

I was reading The Message version of the Bible this morning and James 1:21 caught my eye. It says
Jam 1:21 So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

I loved the vision of my life as a garden... But even more, a salvation garden! That's what I want! I want my life to be full of seeds, blooms, blossoms, trees, and even mulch... All growing and planting and nuturing for Gods glory and kingdom. First of all comes the tilling of the soil.. Which can be hard work and not fun... The tilling and turning of my souls soil can involve digging up much of the dead and dying stuff. And also turning over of hardened soil from many years of an unwatered unattended heart. But that work, the turning and churning of that hard
ground, has to be done in order to have good soils for my garden to grow. Then comes the planting of the seeds... These seeds are Gods words...which when planted deep in your heart soil, watered with the Living Water and fed with the Bread of Life will bring new life to any heart, even one which previously thought
they didn't have a "green thumb". Because Gods word does not return void! It Will
grow if tended to. Then after daily nurturing with His Life giving water and food...
Pretty soon those little shoots will spring up.. You might go days and weeks
without seeing them, then one day there it is!! The first little green sprout, lifting it's
little head out of the soil. Then the next day there's a few more sprouts peeking
out from under the blanket of dirt. New life beginning in my salvation garden...
Within a couple of weeks my garden is blooming with flowers of Gods Love.. There
are many different kinds of flowers, roses, hyacinth, lillies, hydrangeas, daisies,
poppies... All representing the people that have been affected by my gardening
skills Jesus has taught me and my gardening tools He's given me.. Gods word,
daily devotions, Loving people as Jesus loves them... When your garden starts
blooming people see it's vibrant colors and they are attracted to your garden... The more seeds you plant the more flowers you get... But in the middle if my salvation
garden is what Im most proud of... The plant I look up to, the one I most want to
be like... It is the firm, sturdy oak tree. The big tree that covers and shades lots of
my flowers.. A sturdy oak that sways to the wind but is NOT moved by it. And
inside that oak is the wood that was used to carve out the cross that my Savoir
bore on His back and hung from for me, for you, for all the world. He is the only reason my salvation garden can grow and He is the only way my salvation garden
can even exist.