"Beneath the Garden Soil"

This week, I spent several hours a day in the garden. I trimmed branches, moved pots, checked roots, and amended the soil with lime, compost, and organic matter so the garden would have what it needed to grow well. Healthy gardens do not thrive on seed alone. The soil must be enriched too.

In the middle of all that tending, I stumbled upon two snakes and their shed skins. The first time I saw the snake, I screamed and jumped back so fast I nearly dropped my tools. My heart raced as it slipped through the garden bed quietly, almost unnoticed beneath the leaves.

The second time, I paused to really look at it. I could not believe how long it was. Before it disappeared, I even pulled out my phone to video it. I was still cautious… but now I was paying attention.

Then came the snake skins. At first, I did not see the snake skins. I only remember saying, “Thank God I wear gloves when I put my hands into the soil.”

I began clearing extra brush and piles of leaves around the garden. And every time I tilled the soil, I moved more carefully before placing my hands into the dirt. Somewhere between the snakes, the soil, and the shedding skins… the garden began preaching to me. Amongst the uncovering of hazards, I was also discovering life.

New growth was pushing through in places where I thought things had died during the winter. Tiny shoots were rising through dry soil from roots I had nearly given up on.

What looked dead… was still alive beneath the surface. Maybe that is one of the quiet truths about growth. Healthy things require tending. Healthy things require discernment.

Even in Scripture, gardens held both beauty and testing. Eden held beauty and the serpent in the same space. Gethsemane held surrender and sorrow before the cross. Gardens often reveal what has been hidden.

But what stayed with me most this week was not the snakes. It was the evidence of shedding. The old skin could no longer hold what was still growing. Many of us are standing in that kind of season now. Outgrowing old fears. Old grief. Old ways of surviving. Learning to release what no longer fits who God is calling us to become.

I did not stop gardening because I saw snakes. I simply learned to garden differently. More aware. More prayerful. More discerning about what was hidden beneath the surface. That is the lesson for this Week’s End.

Do not stop cultivating your life because you encounter discomfort along the way. Keep tending the soil. Keep clearing what no longer belongs. Keep making room for healthy growth. Because the hazards do not cancel the harvest. Some things are not dead. They are simply waiting for the right season to rise again.

What has God been uncovering in this season of growth? And what old skin might you need to release so healthier growth can emerge?

Pearl's Prayer

Lord, give me wisdom as I tend the garden of my life. Teach me discernment, strengthen what is growing within me, and help me release what no longer belongs in this season. Amen.

I am the Vessel, God is the Grace.