Reaping What You Sow

Some time ago I bought a pack of wildflower seeds. Looking at the packet I saw it was a mixed variety of seeds, about many of which I didn't have a clue. I tried looking up some of the species on the Internet, but that started to become very time consuming. Anyway, I never met a flower I didn't love.  It was already midsummer and I just wanted to add a little more color for late season,without being worried about transplant stress for seedings. Besides, if anything grew that I didn't like, I could always just pull them up. So, loving flowers the way I do, I cast these unfamiliar seeds onto a bare spot in the corner of my sun garden.

It didn't take long for the seeds to sprout. I watched with great anticipation as they grew and spread rapidly, some reaching up 3ft tall and just as wide. Then they began to bloom! There was an explosion colors, textures and sizes. I was fascinated, until...

I noticed the now familiar leaf shape of some of the wildflowers were growing in places where I hadn't planted them. Not just here or there like you might think, but dozens of them, eveywhere! Blown by wind? Carried by birds? Who knows how the seeds spread? Daily, I found myself plucking them from flowerpots, walkways, other flowerbeds, you name it. They insinuated themselves into every area of my yard. I tried to pull the mother plants up, but for some, the roots were so deep, and the stems so tough, that I had to have them cut down as if they where woody shrubs.

It's been three summers since I first cast those seeds. I still spent time this year pulling upshoots from their seedlings. In retrospect, it was silly to abitrarily casts seeds not knowing (or caring) what they may produce. It was even more silly to assume that I could easily correct it if the outcome was adverse. The time I would have spent gaining full knowledge of the seeds and the characteristics of the flowers they produce, pales in comparison to the time I've spent correcting my mistake.

As Christians we sometimes use our "love" as an excuse to carelessly say or do things that are more often for our own personal satisfaction than anything else. Most likely, these comments and actions will negatively affect everyone and everything they touch, taking years to overcome.

My wildflowers turned out to be weeds. What seeds are you sowing?

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows
Galatians 6:7 (New International Version)