Invasive

So what are these maple trees growing in the midst of my flowering pots? Every morning I go around my garden and find at least of dozen of these little invaders, the fruit of all the whirlybird maple seeds which covered my yard during the spring. I have to keep tugging them out of the soil, else I would have a garden filled with mini maple trees!


All spring as I have worked on my garden, I have thought about the word "invasive." I have a constant battle with plants which at one time were tiny and lovely. In many cases a friend has said, "Oh would you like some.......... (fill in the blank: violets, ivy, mint, lemon balm, tiger lilies, lily of the valley)" or I have foolishly bought some plant that looked pretty in the store. And over the years it has reproduced, and reproduced. Now I fight a weekly battle with these plants. I just spent part of my afternoon digging and pulling these invaders. I have especially been battling ivy that has overtaken large areas of the garden. And I have another plant that I bought (don't remember the name) that is now choking out everything else, and every time I try to dig it out, the chopped up roots throw up new plants, making it worse. And those orange daylilies - they have crowded out the other pretty colored lilies I planted. I could go on and on. Invasive! Oh why did I let those plants in my garden! If I only knew!

Every time I have been pulling out one of these unwanted plants, I keep thinking of invasive in spiritual terms in my life. What is invasive, what have I let get planted in my life that now is choking out good things, what is crowding out God wants for me? The Parable of the Sower (Mark 4) talks about the seed that fell among the thorns and was choked out. Invasive.

So every morning as I weed and pull, it has also been a time to reflect on what is invasive in m life. (hmmmm, maybe there is purpose for those garden invaders after all......)