More on The Gardener

I received my book for my next Bible Study, and was struck by the cover. What do you see when you first look at it? The beautiful fruit? It is the center of the picture and the brightest image. However, look underneath the fruit, at the gardener's hands. They are dirty, filthy. Why?

When the gardener steps into the garden, his hands are usually clean. Then comes the dirty work. He begins pulling weeds and planting seeds, digging in the dirt and doing what he can to make the soil fertile. In the process his hands get very dirty.

Jesus is the gardener, and he is eager to help me clean up my messy weeds so that I can be fruitful. In the process, he got very dirty--filthy--because of my sins. He took them all on himself...MY sins, past, present, and future. He got dirty for ME. If he hadn't done that, the weeds would have choked me and prevented me from ever bearing any fruit. I am the beautiful fruit in that picture, because of Him and His dirty hands.

Wow. That's amazing to me. Still.

Are you bearing fruit? Does your garden need weeding? I can recommend a great gardener!

If you haven't already, read my post earlier this week about weeds and the gardener.