A light layer of frost covers the grass. The morning is cool, but the breeze carries the promise of warmth. The sun shines brightly.

Spring is coming.

It’s early September, and the weather has not quite decided whether winter is over. Today is a rare day of sunshine, so after a morning of work in the home office — longingly glancing through the window at the sunshine — I decide to make the most of it, as the forecast for the rest of the week is rain.  

My veggie patch, which had shown precious little development over winter, has now suddenly burst to life with an abundance of rocket, spinach, radish, broccoli and carrots…plus a jumble of sour sobs, thistle and grass. My chickens enjoy some extra freedom as I let them out of their yard, and they scratch around in the overgrown lawn and my ever growing pile of weeds. Tiny pink and purple flowers cover the grass. Seedlings from the neighbour’s ash tree are sprouting everywhere.

Scruffy, I call it.
But beautiful.

After so long watching the bare dirt, waiting for things to grow — there was life.
Every weed, every blade of grass and tiny flower — is a sign that spring is here!

I sit down against the side of my house, the bricks warm on my back, and smile at this thought.

Isn’t that so like our lives?

Scruffy.
Overgrown.
Things springing up all over the place…and not particularly where we want or expect them.

A friend said, “I love your garden!”
I wasn’t exactly embarrassed by the overgrown grass, but I did feel the need to excuse its…scruffiness.

But why?

Growth is good!
Growth means life!

And after so long waiting for things to grow — for promises to be seen and for things to finally start happening… Growth is like that warm breeze in the morning that brings hope for a sunny day.

Scruffy is nothing to be ashamed of.
Scruffy is not wrong.
Scruffy brings with it a chance for development and opportunities unexpected.

…Scruffy allows for “The Gardener” to choose what He wants to weed and wants to let grow.

If your winter has been long and you feel like the sunshine is all too fleeting, if you feel like things are starting to move and grow but it’s going all directions, if you are hiding because you feel like you’re not quite ready — because you’re scruffy… Take a moment, (I write this with a kitchen full of dishes,) step outside… and sit in that overgrown grass.  

Simply sit, and soak in the warmth of The Son.
Then allow the Gardener to do His work.

All you need to do is keep growing...

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

John 15v1-8