I happen to be married to a wonderful flower gardener! My wife, Sharon has a wonderful way with flowers! At the house where we lived in the country she cared for a wonderful “berm” filled with beautiful plants and shrubs (see video)! Once a flower or shrub was planted by Sharon, it became an object of constant care and attention until it matured and became a thing of beauty!
Her care and concern came to mind as I read the following verses during my time of “coffee with the Lord” … They express the concern of an apostle about those who had recently come to faith in Christ and experienced “new birth” … gardener imagery and terminology are used to express Apostle Paul’s desire for growth and maturity in the lives of the believers in Colossae…
He urged them: “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” (From Colossians 2:6-7)
If I were serving as a pastor today, I think I’d use these two verses as a “charge” I’d give those who had just come to faith in Christ and were following the Lord in water baptism. Can you picture it? … As they came out of the waters of baptism I’d say to them… “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you have been taught, abounding with thanksgiving.” I think It expresses beautifully what a spiritual leader with a “pastor’s heart” longs to see happen in the life of a brand new Christian!
Coffee With The Lord 