Weeds

I have had budgies for a long time. I love budgies. I still have two and even though my little sister is in charge of making sure they have dry seed and water, enjoy bringing them fresh little treats. Over the years, I've slowly uncovered their favourite foods. They love the plants that grow from the seed that drops onto the ground and they really love chickweed.

"Chickweed is an annual wild edible that grows in many locations and as hardy as it is, chickweed is quite delicate. This is an easy-to-grow plant that's healthy to eat and it produces flowers throughout they growing season even in hot, dry conditions. Chickweed grows in a unique, intertwined manner, and it has small white star-shaped flowers hence it's Latin name, Sellaria media. Stems have a thing line of white hair that grows in a weave-like pattern."

And my budgies love it!

When we first moved to this property, I used to cultivate and protect every little patch of chickweed that I could find to save and feed to my budgies. And they thrived on it! Today however, I was out in the

garden, watering the strawberry bed when, as I peered through the netting that we have there to keep the birds from stealing our yummy strawbs, I noticed a huge mat of green. Immediately I knew that it was chickweed and that somewhere under that, there were strawberry plants fighting for life. The poor little things could hardly breath and sure couldn't see the sunshine so after I was finished watering, I peeled back the netting and set to work clearing away the weeds. Slowly and carefully I peeled back the outskirts of the chickweed. I had to be quite delicate because the strawberry runners were intertwined in the chickweed and fruits were buried underneath.
One by one I pulled the huge plants out and finally the strawberry plants could be out in the fresh air again.


Later on, Josh and I were clearing out a section of garden bed that was overgrown with dead bok choy plants, seeding parsley and my least favourite plant: dock. Now if there is one plant I hate, it's dock. It's HORRIBLE stuff! I mean it's impossible to pull out by hand. If you try, the outer leaves will just rip off and inside, the young leaves will be left encased in a slippery, slimy, gooey stuff that makes them almost impossible to pull out. The roots run deep and strong making it so that you have to get in with a fork or a shovel to even have a chance at pulling them out. That's why I hate them, because they are huge and horrible and almost impossible to get out.

Later, as I was thinking about it, I was thinking of all the parallels that I could find between weeds and sin. Sin is a weed! Weeds are harmful, horrible, sometimes dangerous, overtaking, overruling, and they are always in the wrong place! Just like the chickweed, some sins may seem small and they just couldn't be harmful. Just little sins that we can easily pull out and get rid of. I mean, it doesn't really matter if I do ____. I can easily stop. Or does it? Or can I? 'Little' sins like that tend to get intertwined around and through our lives and even though the sin itself might seems easy to pull out, it is so

intertwined that it becomes difficult and painful to eradicate. These little sins also hide our 'fruit' and make it impossible for us to reach our full potential.

And then there's the big sins. Their roots go WAY down into our lives and pulling them out seems impossible. Sometimes we can cut off the outside symptoms and make it seem as if we've conqured them. We put on that brave christian smile and everyone else things that we've got it all together and we've gotten rid of that sin. But the root is still there. It takes painful digging by the master Gardener to get these sins right out of our lives.
And when I think about it. There are no 'good' weeds or 'bad' weeds. All weeds are bad. They are weeds because they are in the wrong place and they are weeds because they are bad and because they are weeds. Just like this, there are no 'good' sins and 'bad' sins or 'big' sins and 'little' sins. All sin is disobedience to God's requirements and all sin is seen to be just as 'bad' to God.

"All who indulge sinful traits of character, or wilfully cherish a known sin, are inviting the temptations of Satan. They separate themselves from God and the watch-care of His angels; as the evil one presents his deceptions, they are without defence and fall an easy prey. Those who thus place themselves in his power little realise where their course will end. Having achieved their overthrow, the tempter will employ them as his agents to lure others to ruin." GC 558

Let's purpose in our hearts to let the Creator into our hearts and ask Him to weed out all the undesirable sins from our lives, no matter what the cost.

May both your garden and your soul be weed-free and beautiful!

http://www.ediblewildfood.com