Weeding out sin and sun salutations

Recently I was weeding my garden, something I need to do more of before I lose my garden to a sea of weeds, and was struck by a thought. Since these kind of deep thoughts don't occur often in my overextended mind, I thought I should share.

I was pulling some dandelions, aka:the devil weed, from around my rose bush and found one weed to be particularly difficult to remove. I was forced to dig along side the root to get as much in my hand as possible so as not to break the root in my effort to extract it. As I was digging I found that the root of the dandelion was actually growing up in between the roots of the rose bush. And as I began to dig around the intertwined roots I was struck with the picture of God removing sin from our lives. Often times we think of sin as isolated incidents that can by packaged up neatly and given over to Jesus with a hearty "I'm sorry." But in my digging I realized that the problem sins are the ones that we've allowed to grow for so long that they become part of us. I thought of how most of the sins in my life are things I've allowed to grow very close to my heart and have a hard time letting go of. As I worked to remove the weed I saw that I was actually hurting my rose bush. And I was hit with this thought: Could God actually cause us pain when he needs to remove the sin that we've cultivated in our own lives? I was sure that the answer was yes as I carefully, yet still unable to avoid some cuts on my rosebushes roots, removed one of the fattest dandelions roots I had ever seen. And after all that work, I thought a small portion of the root might have broken off and I knew I'd be back later to remove it completely...but I told myself I wouldn't wait as long this time. That way the weed would be smaller and less painful to remove.

Lord, let me be willing and open to your removal of sin in my life, painful though it may be. And keep my heart soft to the working of your Holy Spirit so that I am constantly examining the garden of my heart for weeds and allowing you to uproot them before they grow too deep.

On a "lighter" note, today I have been praising God for the mighty powers of his sun(as well as his Son!) I hung my cloth diapers out to dry on the line and was once again amazed at the bleaching powers of the sun. All the poop stains are GONE!!

God is awesome and for all his creations let us praise HIM!!