Not all sunshine…

 

Today’s devotional writer again uses this passage to describe spiritual growth:

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matthew 6:27–29)

The comparison uses pleasing images such as ‘the thinking of the Sun of Righteousness’ and ‘the dew of heaven.’ This writer also says that leaves and flowers will follow, and added that I should be aware that ‘the thinnest covering’ can block His means of growth and reduce it to ‘dwindle and fade as a plant in a cellar or under a bushel.’

I chuckled in memory of two things. One was my mother standing over the flats of petunias from the greenhouse and hitting them with her rake. She did this because she discovered they grew better with a good swat of adversity. This was left out in the devotional reading ‘means of growth’ description, but it should be there because I know that I’m more like a petunia than a lily. I need a good swat now and then, never mind that life is filled with ups and downs and God uses all of it to help me grow. The Bible backs this up by this early learned and favorite passage:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

Key words? ALL THINGS. This includes tough times, trials, hard to live with circumstances. Growing in Christ is not always about sunshine, dew, rain, leaves and blossoms. Sometimes it includes dark nights, dry spells, aphids and other pests, mildew and disease, not enough or too much fertilizer, and getting run over by a rake or the lawn mower.

The Lord says and means ‘all things’ because He knows what I need to become like Jesus. His life was not all roses and comfort. He left heaven to be here — that was the first shock. Then He took the form of a helpless baby who had to obey His parents. He grew but…

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:2–3)

This does not fit with a human value system nor does it suggest perfect growing conditions. Even at the height of His popularity, He had enemies who wanted Him dead and eventually got their way.

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. (Matthew 16:21)

He was tested in the wilderness, tested in the marketplace, tested in the temple, and tested in the garden. People persecuted, mocked, tortured, and walked away from Him. To be like Jesus, His followers experience some of what He experienced. As He said, “… A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you….” (John 15:20)

Besides hitting petunias with a rake, my mother taught me a valuable truth. Whatever happened, she said, “We must need it or we would not be getting it.” While God protects me from many things, He also uses what most would call negative or uncomfortable situations and events to purge from me all that is not like Jesus, much like a carver chisels away what does not fit with the creation he is forming. Life is not always comfortable, but under the shaping hand of God, my destiny is certain — I will be like Jesus when He is done.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:2–3)

PRAY: This promise of eventually being like You, Jesus, often seems totally impossible, but it helps to know that even in those days when I feel as if I’m getting hit with a rake, You are using it for my transformation — so help me to keep that in mind instead of whining or insisting that You remove whatever is causing my discomfort. Help me accept that even the tough stuff can change my life.