my fifth grade garden

when i was in fifth grade, i did something i really thought would get me killed with a garden bolo.

our teacher had divided the class into groups and assigned each group a garden plot. we were instructed to plant whatever vegetable the group decides on, and on exam day he'll come to check the plants and grade us.

i don't remember what vegetable my group decided on, just that it was a leafy vine and it covered all of the three by ten feet of ground. of the group, one guy named Reli and i worked particularly hard on the garden. armed with bolos, we went to it each afternoon after classes, watered the vegetables, and pulled out weeds. soon, our vegetable and those of the nearby plots grew pretty healthy and nice-looking.

a few days before the teacher was set to come and inspect the garden, i was working alone on our plot and noticed how wonderfully fat the plants on the plot next to ours were. i talked with the classmate who tended them and she shared how easy it had been to grow the plants. i don't remember what kind of plants they were, not even what got into my head that gray afternoon. but i remember very clearly that i had pulled out our precious precious vine and planted in their place vegetables from that neighboring plot. and i remember going home much pleased.

imagine Reli's surprise and utter anger when he saw the garden the next day and saw, among the wonderful garden plots that belonged to classmates, our bald plot. all the years of my life before and after that incident, i have never seen anyone so mad at me. i can actually still see him bent over the plot, striking it again and again with his bolo. bits of soil flew in my direction along with a seemingly endless stream of "what were you thinking? the garden will be inspected in two days. what will we have to show, how clean our plot is? you are so stupid!"

call me silly. i actually had not thought about that till then. there was no way i could have grown the neighbor's wonderful plant on my own plot in just two days.

i don't remember how we got out of that one and how i managed to stay alive under Reli's glare. and i didn't recall this incident until a few days ago when i talked to the teens at church about building a character - the way you can't say "I'll change just before Jesus comes, and I'll choose Him when they persecute me, but for now let me be. I'm not exactly bad, y'know."

things like that need time, like planting a garden and growing a vegetable. you can choose to never leave your garden for two whole days, or even seven, watering constantly, pulling out weeds the exact moment they shoot up the ground, pleading with the plants to grow faster, but they won't. it just doesn't happen that way.

you've got to plant the seeds now, and come back to tend the garden day after day after day ever so patiently. growing plants and a good character takes time and effort. you can't plant your wonderful character just two days before Jesus comes. besides, the character you're choosing now will make you unfit to make that choice later.

occupy your soil today. choose Jesus now and every single day after.