Terry & Barbi Franklin - USGN

Bad Hair Day

USGN article
by Barbi Franklin
August 1999

It was definitely a bad hair day last week as I knelt by the fresh moist soil I was gardening. We just moved and the landscaping had been neglected. Though it had begun to rain, I was determined. I wasn't about to stop! I wasn't finished weeding the landscaping yet, and Terry and the boys hadn't mulched along the side of the house I had already finished.

I was convinced of Terry's love when I saw him and our two boys coming around the corner with a wheelbarrow full of your basic black mixture of horse manure, etc. All three of them were goofing off, and soon we were all giggling together as the rain sprinkled gently all around us. (Mommy sure did look funny with flat, wet, stringy hair.) With my purple leather garden gloves, I persistently kept digging deep into the soil to get the crabgrass up from the roots before "my 3 boys" covered the garden bed with mulch.

An amazing thing happened as I tugged at the weeds. After it had rained awhile, the weeds came up easier. The ground had softened and the work went a lot quicker. Even the weeds that had grown right up through some of the bushes were pulling right out.

Earlier, while working in the garden, I had trimmed several rose bushes. And from the very beginning of this gardening experience, I was reminded of so many things God has revealed to us in His Word.

Sometimes our hearts are hardened and God has to send the rain to soften us so He can dig up all the weeds that invade our lives. It's His loving care that doesn't want the weeds to overtake the beauty of our lives. And when we blossom, He even snips off some of the fruitful limbs, like I have to do with our rose bushes, otherwise they become spindly and unkempt.

When He snips us way down it can be painful. We may not understand why some of the beautiful branches of our lives have to be pruned. But we shouldn't feel defeated. God sees a fuller and more fruitful life in the future with bigger and better flowers.

So, when He makes it rain, digs through your soil, or snips away your branches, just anticipate a sweeter aroma of His grace to begin flowing richly through you. And from now on, do your weeding in the rain!

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