Have you ever planted a garden only to have it eaten by wild critters? If you depend on what you grow for sustenance, you have to find a way to keep intruders out, so you build a fence, a hedgerow, a wall of brambles, or a thicket of dense bushes.
Wait you are not done yet. You need to maintain the wall and make sure it is impossible to dig under or jump over. And you need a gate so that you can get in to water, add compost, and pull weeds. This is a done in daily rotation, paying attention to all the growing things. You welcome natural predators that will eat insect pests, delight in bees that pollinate, and plant marigolds around your tomatoes.
Every fruitful garden needs a gardener.
Christians grow in God’s garden. God is the Master Gardener, and He puts a hedge around us. Satan is frustrated by this, as we learn when he petitions God to let him persecute Job.
Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. Job 1:10
Unfortunately, we humans often open the garden gate or invite into the garden the very things that will eat us up and spit us out. It started in Genesis 3 in the Garden of Eden, and we’re still doing it. When we do so, when we resist the Lord’s pruning and weeding, when we prefer caterpillars to compost, we are subject to God’s wrath. When God’s Chosen People chose to open the gate to the world rather than depend on their Master Gardener, here is His response:
What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? 5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it. Isaiah 5:4-6
We might break a little hole in the wall thinking, “What could it hurt?”
Whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. Ecclesiastes 10:8
Guard your heart. Maintain a Godly hedge around your thoughts. Don’t be fooled by Satan’s flattery or intimidation. Don’t be afraid of the devil’s threats or weapons. We know Who cares for us, and the devil has already been defeated.
Beware the snake. Grow and bear fruit in God’s Garden.
Kathleen S Evenhouse 