We’ve all heard the old nursery rhyme, “Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row.”

This is the time of year where the question of the rhyme, if not the exact wording, is repeated over and over again. Spring is here and with it scores of amateur landscapists and gardeners are busy tilling, weeding, planting, and fertilizing their flower beds and vegetable gardens.

The gardening bug has even hit the Frederick household. I have to be honest, when I was a kid I never thought I would plant a vegetable garden when I grew up. I wasn’t particularly interested in weeding or hoeing. I did like to run the tiller but boys are drawn to motors like moths to a light so that shouldn’t be that surprising.

I did always enjoy watching the plants in the garden grow. Dad always knew the best varieties and how to space the garden just right in order to get the maximum number of plants in our little town garden. I also really enjoyed eating the fruit of our labor, even if I was more interested in the fruit than the labor. There is nothing like a fresh garden vegetable that you pick the very same day it is consumed. Even in the winter a sense of comfort comes over those who garden when they eat what was preserved the previous fall.

Despite my doubts, we have had a garden several times in my adulthood. Most haven’t been big, but I do enjoy planting and harvesting, even if weeding and picking aren’t my favorite. Some things never change though as I still really enjoy eating everything we grow!

Over the last several weeks I’ve been walking people through my garden via Facebook Live. Being in the deep south, our ground temperature and weather is much warmer than northern areas and we’ve been able to capitalize on those factors by planting our garden early. At the time of this writing our green bean plants are nearly a foot tall that were planted 4 weeks ago today. We’ve also got blooms on tomatoes and peppers and will have blooms soon on squash and cucumber plants.

I can’t help but think about the Bible when I’m out in my garden, whether I’m working or just seeing how my little plants are faring. The Scripture talks a lot about gardening you know. After all, the oldest profession in the world is actually being a gardener! Genesis 2:15 tells us, “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Adam’s job, as given by God Himself, was to be a gardener in the Garden of Eden.

One passage that I’ve been relating to gardening recently is found in the New Testament book of Galatians. The Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, writes to the churches of Galatia about two opposing gardens, if you will. The works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.

The works of the flesh are those things that we do naturally in our sin nature. They are against God and, for the most part, against our fellow man. It is the expected end of our natural, carnal man. It is a life full of self and sin.

The fruit of the Spirit, however, are just the opposite. It is the result of our following Christ and living for Him. It is the outpouring of the change the Holy Ghost makes within us. It is the earthly display of the heavenly character He produces in us.

There are a lot of sermons, articles, and books on the fruit of the Spirit. I have no doubt most of them do a much better job explaining just how the Lord does this work in us and how we are supposed to exhibit this fruit as it matures. There is one truth that I’ve been meditating on, though, as it pertains to the fruit of the Spirit that I hope will help you.

I’m not the world’s best gardener by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know a few things. As much as I resisted I did learn some lessons in our backyard garden those many years ago with my Dad and siblings.

One thing I learned that is a profoundly simple truth is that a garden, and plants, must be cultivated. There has to be some tilling, some weeding, and some fertilizing. The ground has to be opened in order for a garden to grow properly. There has to be some amount of attention paid to the plants to ensure they develop and grow correctly so they can produce fruit to the best of their ability.

I believe that if we want to see the fruit of the Spirit grow, we have to cultivate. Our hearts have to be open. We have to till, and weed, and fertilize the fruit so they will grow and produce in our lives.

I can’t make my garden grow. I can do all the work and hope but ultimately I can’t force anything to sprout and take root. The same is true of the fruit of the Spirit. I can’t force God to make these attributes show up in my life automatically. God is not some genie I can order around at my whim, even if what I want is ultimately good. What I can do is cultivate the garden of my heart and allow God to do His work in His time.

What about you Christian? Have you cultivated the garden of your heart and asked God to increase the fruit of the Spirit? Perhaps there is some weeding that needs to take place before the fruit can grow. As we prepare and plan our earthly gardens, let us also examine ourselves so we might be ready ground for the fruit of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23