Wheat or Weed?

     It’s pretty pathetic and embarrassing to admit how often I stare at green things sprouting in my yard and wonder, “Are these weeds or flowers?”

     As we try to transform our piece of wilderness into some kind of domesticated landscape, I’ve had to come to grips with the fact that I’m horticulturally retarded.

     The depth and breadth of my gardening deficiencies are immense, but certainly one of my most frustrating, glaring weaknesses is that I usually can’t tell flowers from weeds until they bloom.

     As you can imagine, this makes weeding — already a hot, nasty task – terribly stressful because I never know if I’m yanking out something I should yank out, or uprooting a baby flower that’s sprouting from bulbs we actually planted on purpose.

     Theoretically, we should have blooms all over our yard because my husband planted a boatload of flower bulbs a couple of years ago.

     (Note: I’m not too lazy to plant bulbs myself, but I’ve nearly always just had orthopedic surgery, so it’s wonderfully convenient to have a strong and helpful husband. Wonderfully convenient for me, that is. Not so much for my helpful hubby.)

     Since our bulb-to-bloom ratio is seriously off, I suspect that in my zeal to destroy weeds, I’m inadvertently pulling up flowers.

     All I know to do is to let everything grow up until I can clearly tell what’s what, but that strategy is resulting in some pretty unsightly planting areas. Think “jungle.”

     I recently got tired of looking at all of it, so I jerked up everything without a bloom.

     I sure am thankful God is a better gardener than I am. As Jesus explained in a familiar parable found in Matthew 13, He has no trouble telling weeds from flowers (or in this case, wheat).

     The gist of the parable is that Christ-followers are “wheat,” unbelievers are “weeds” and God is allowing both to grow up, side by side, until the “harvest” — the end of the age — when He’ll instruct His angels to do some heavenly weeding in His “garden” — this world.

     What will happen to the weeds? “(The angels) will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42).

     And the wheat? “Gather the wheat into my barn,” God will command His angels (Matthew 13:30).

     Several things become clear from this parable: 1) everyone is either a “wheat” or a “weed”; 2) “wheat” are those who accept the deity and Lordship of Jesus, and the salvation He offers, while “weeds” reject Christ and His gospel; 3) God knows who’s a “wheat” and who’s a “weed”; and 4) in the end, it’s going to be a whole lot better for the “wheat” than the “weeds.”

     We all know the world includes both “wheat” and “weeds.” The more surprising truth might be that some churches do, too.

     Listen to these sobering words of Jesus: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me … .’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

     Having weeds in my garden is annoying, but being a weed in God’s garden is a terrifying prospect.

     We may fool others, but we can’t fool God.

     Afraid you might be a “weed”? Here’s good news: Jesus came to transform “weeds” into “wheat.”

     As long as we have breath, we can choose to humble ourselves, follow Christ, and find eternal life.