Weeds Amongst The Wheat

My wife, Kim, takes pride in how our lawn looks.  I do, too, to a certain extent anyway, but not nearly the way Kim does.

Once a week, she mows.  Once a month she trims the bushes in the front of the house.  She has set the sprinklers on a timer and waters regularly.  And today, we just got done pulling weeds.  

Got me thinking . . .

Remember the Bible story about the wheat and the weeds?  The Bible was more eloquent than I am and used a different word for ‘weeds’, but for today, it serves my purpose.

As the story went, the Lord made a decision that the wheat and the weeds would grow together until harvest time.  For farmers, that’s a very finite amount of time.  Once upon a time, I drove a wheat truck in Wyoming during the summer.  The farmers I worked for hoped that wind, storms and hail would stay away until the wheat could get harvested.  Sometimes it did, while other times . . .

But I find the story curious: Why did the Lord allow the wheat and weeds to grow together?  Did He think that somehow, someway, weeds might turn into wheat?  That somehow, someway, wheat wouldn’t be choked out by the growth of weeds?

I mean, I look at our lawn.  In spite of Kim’s efforts, there are patches of weeds that, while not ruining our lawn, certainly give it a patchy, blotchy look.  So, we pull.  We spray.  We fertilize.  We water.  We begin in the spring.  We continue all summer long and into the fall.  There isn’t a harvest time for grass as there is with wheat.  So, Kim and I do our thing until the cold and the snow make our grass go dormant.  And we begin the process all over again come spring.

It seems to me that there are weeds among us.

In spite of our very best efforts, weeds sprout in and amongst us.  These weeds can take many forms.  Negativity.  Meanness.  Indifference.  Snobbism.  Cruelty. Perhaps a “holier than though” attitude.  Maybe even a “I’ve been here for 42 years so . . .”

It doesn’t take many of these weeds, these individuals, to bring down the rest.  Sometimes, just associating with, just being around these individuals can cause us to turn into weeds, to be like them.  How many times do we find ourselves listening in on a conversation of “Ain’t it awful!” only to become contributors?  We might even become just as negative.  And worse, we might pass that negativity on to others. 

So, like a snowball rolling down a hill, the negativity grows.  Eventually, the climate changes.  Moods grow dark. There’s general unhappiness.  A lowering of morale.

So . . .

I’m not sure why the Lord allowed the wheat and the weeds to grow together until harvest.  I guess if it were up to me, I’d throw them out.  Tear them out at the root.  Spray weed killer on them.  I wouldn’t want them to poison the wheat . . . the grass . . . the rest of us.

But it isn’t up to me.  Maybe.  Perhaps.

I can do my part to prevent weeds from growing in my life.  I can do my part to never be a weed to others.  I can do my part to sow happiness.  Kindness.  Gentleness.  To bring a smile, a laugh, instead of a frown or a tear.  I can be compassionate and caring.  I can listen and be patient.  I think we all can.  Each of us.  And in the end, our lives, the lives of others, our world and where we work, might be better in the long run.

Perhaps that’s why the Lord allowed the Weeds to grow Amongst the Wheat.  Something to think about . . .

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