Ugh. I mowed the yard 5 days ago, and it already needs it again. There are actually three lengths of grass in our “back 40” (we have a very large backyard). Short around the house, longer behind the garden, and uncut up against the back fence. Why would anyone want their yard like this? Because there are baby rabbits, and birds fly in to feed in the grasses, and honey bees are busy in the wildflowers. A little bit of nature in the middle of an urban area. In the mornings when I sit outside, I listen to the birds singing and the breezes in the trees and the sound of running water from the Koirala pond next door. Okay,  so you might have to filter out the occasional barking dog, and use your imagination to change the sound of traffic to the sound of a river in your mind…. 
I adore the way fresh-cut grass smells, and the way a lush bed of grass feels against my bare feet. The beautiful green of a field in the spring is pure enjoyment for my eyes. If our yard could be filled with grasses and wildflowers that stopped growing at 4 or 5 inches tall…. wait. Why hasn’t this happened, anyway? No, I’m sure that someone has already genetically modified grass to grow the “perfect” length and then stop growing, but is it really what I want? No, it seems that man is so busy trying to perfect God’s creation, we don’t have the time to see how incredible and beautiful it is.

I wonder if God feels this way about me, about humans, sometimes. If we would just choose Him, and listen to Him, and LOVE Him….. we would be perfect, but then we wouldn’t be exercising our free will. It would be forced; coerced. I don’t like to see animals being forced to do something they don’t want to, but sometimes it has to happen both for their safety and for the people around them. I’m not crazy about genetically altered plants (and I’m not yet convinced they are safe for consumption by humans), but are they sometimes needed in order to feed people who might otherwise go hungry? I don’t have the answer to that question. 

  “Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to Him than they are?  Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing,  yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.  And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?” – Matthew 6:26‭-‬30 NLT (http://bible.com/116/mat.6.26-30.NLT)

Sometimes, I just want to leave my yard as it would be if I never mowed it, but because of the poor decision of Adam and Eve to let sin into the world, it won’t necessarily grow into a thing of beauty. The introduction of sin into the world unleashed plenty of ugliness, and without the pruning and weed removal I do, my yard wouldn’t be a place of beauty for long. It would be full of weeds and stickers instead of soft grass, very much like we become when we refuse God’s loving discipline in our lives. You can’t grow beautiful roses or great fruit or even a beautiful lawn without pruning and cutting, and God prunes us through His discipline. It’s uncomfortable at best, excruciatingly painful at worst.

  “For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” – 2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT (http://bible.com/116/2co.7.10.NLT)