The POWER of Spring

As a man who makes his living, life and loves as a Gardener and as a Minister of Jesus I am always struck by the power of the spring of the year.  There are important prophetic implications as well.

 

In gardening it is the time of year when we cut away anything dead in favor of the new.  It's when we clean out and start over the beds of the past that bore fruit but cannot again.  What was planted last year now has no life.

 

I spent last night sticking live stakes into ready soils for rooting.  Things like willows, dogwoods, poplars, elderberry and others respond at this time of year to being cut off and placed in a ready environment by rooting and sending out new growth.

 

It's not a great experience for the plant I cut off to do this with.  In fact the plants I cut probably would rather I had left them alone.  But to multiply they must be cut off and replanted.

 

Then there is the power of the seed.  Seed that was carefully laid down in the cold of fall, sat frozen all winter, now as spring warms the ground finds a way to break out and push thru despite the frozen environment all around them.  They survive and prosper despite all attempts to stop them.

 

The power of the Sun drives much of this. It's amazing when in mid February the sun starts to push back winter and by this time of year begins a victory drive of glory and light that snow and cold can't endure.

 

Then there is the rain.  The snow of winter provides needed protection from deep cold and needed moisture for spring.  But the rain we had last night has a different effect.  I woke up and went out into the greenhouse about 4 this morning. It was upper 30's and pouring rain.  The warmth of that rainfall pushes the frost out of the ground and releases the blossoms of spring.  This rain will reveal tulips and daffodils people thought may have rotted off or that squirrels might have confiscated for a winters snack.

 

This time of extraordinary growth is short but aggressive.  For ready to prosper plants and trees the heat of the sun as spring moves on forces buds and blooms to manifest or dry up.  During that time every fallen or planted seed seems to sprout, every horizontal branch laying on the ground sends roots down, Every living branch pushes to reestablish itself. Even what seems to be dead seems to want to grow.

 

But there ends up to be a lot of dead wood.  A pile which has to be burned up.  I potted up a large lot of pussy willow from some late cuttings last year. Too late.  When it came time to lift and sort them for repotting this spring I threw nearly half away.  I could have planted them and hoped they might make it.  They were dead.  On to the burn pile they went.  My neighbor has a pussy willow tree/shrub from which I make cuttings (Scion wood).  Part of the deal is I prune off the dead when I do.  That keeps this tree looking good, vigorous and healthy.  If I didn't prune hard wood rot will set into the dead wood and infect the live.  There were already some shelf fungi which I had to remove and expose the fresh wound to the sun for healing.

 

I have a redbud tree in my front yard.  It has a slab of dead wood as part of the trunk.  In the winter some water seeped in and when it froze it broke away the bark and xylem that was alive a year ago.  If I don't cut away that part of the trunk it will provide a place for infection and disease to settle.  It will ultimately kill the tree.  Cutting the dead away from the trunk will be unsightly for a while but if the tree is to survive and prosper it is essential to do this.  The phloem will grow back over the wound and eventually the tree will look as good as ever.  It will survive and prosper because of the cutting away no matter how unsightly.  Leaving it looking OK for a while will kill the tree.

 

Now, unless you are spiritually blind you already understand all the parallels of my Gardening observations in the aggressive power of springs forces.

 

Many Churches keep trying to make something from the old beds.  Too many try to plant seedlings in places they won't prosper.  They won't prune out the dead wood.  The keep remembering what that old wood used to be like and how the tree used to be. They aren't confident in what that tree will become. When the early rain comes (Joel 2) and the latter rain pours there isn't enough left to sprout.  The Seed in the ground produces some but untended and immature never takes root and withers.  The plants that need to be pushed by the heat of the Sun (passion) squander falter and droop because of the shade of religion.  The season of power is lost because of a resistance to take advantage of the changes spring provides. 

 

So like a bad attempt to keep the Christmas decorations of winter too long out of sentimentality and missing the spring, when the summer heat finally comes the blossoming and fruit that was destined to be provided is lost in the heat of the summer sun's blaze.  It's too late to plant.

 

When other trees bear much fruit for the fall storehouse and the master asks why this garden did not he may well say, "dig it up and burn it.  Let's plant something that will grow here. Luke 13:6-9"  The gardener may want to save it, but fertilizing a dead plant will still produce no growth.  Even if the tree is alive if there is no sunshine or rain fertilization is useless.

 

The tree without fruit is cursed. Mark 11:12-14

 

I must bear fruit or cut me off and replant me.  I am like the elderberry, ready for new growth.  It just must be in fertile ready soil.