Corn, Carrots, Onions and Weeds

It is no secret that I was overworked as a child.  I have spoke openly about how my parents made me do practically everything around the house while they and my siblings did nary anything.  It was my responsibility to split wood, and mow the lawn and weed the garden and haul wood into the house.  I would often complain about this while waiting for dad to come in from feeding the pigs and blowing snow off of the driveway to we could eat the hot meal that mom prepared every night. 

Over the years it is likely that I hauled in more than twice the amount of wood than any of my siblings did.  In fact, while my brother carried in wood one piece at a time, I worked harder and gathered many smaller pieces into my arms so that I could carry more wood in at once.  This made financial sense too as my dad paid us 1 penny per piece of wood.  So in the time it took my older brother to make 2 cents I could have already earned a quarter.  Somehow they turned this into an example of my own greed and laziness, but I just don’t see it. 

They say that the starting and stopping of an engine uses more fuel than one that is just running at idle.  This is why when mowing the lawn I would leave the engine run while making myself a little afternoon snack on those hot July days.  I am sure that my parents wouldn’t want me to risk passing out from fatigue due to the excessive heat.  Again this was turned against me as if I was being lazy.  This is absurd! It is obvious that I was being frugal with dad’s fuel not wanting to waste gas by the constant starting and stopping of the mower.  The rule was that each child had to mow one tank of gas as their “turn.” It’s not my fault that the mower ran out of gas while I was eating my ham and cheese refreshment.   

When it came to weeding the garden I would again find myself thrown under the proverbial bus. 

“Ryan! Get out there and weed the garden!”

Keep in mind, that our garden was an acre and a half of mostly corn and potatoes.  One corner however would be left to fill with carrots, onions, tomatoes and beats.

“I can’t go out and weed right now! It’s too early!”

“What do you mean it’s too early! It’s already 11:00 a.m.”

“No! I mean, the plants are not big enough to weed yet.  I can’t tell the difference between the corn and grass, the carrots and weeds and the onions and aloe vera.”

“There is no aloe vera planted in the garden now get out there!”

I can’t say that I “intentionally” attacked the corn, carrots and onions, but I can say that I took no extra care in weeding these crops…especially the onions…I hated onions.

The next day my dad was livid as to the fact that more than half of his onion plants had been uprooted and thrown out with the weeds.  Somehow he seemed to feel that this was my fault. I tried to warn him that the plants were too young to be able to tell the difference from that which was desirable and that which was a weed.  As an aside, he had planted something like 300 onion plants…who needs 300 onions? Certainly not an 8 year old boy who hates onions. 

I do remember mom making onion rings one time.  They were pretty good after I pulled the soggy onion out of the crust and ate the crust. “We should have onion rings more often!” I said.

“We would if you hadn’t killed half the crop.”

Every time I read the parable of the wheat and the weeds found in, Matt. 13:24-50, I am reminded of the poor weeding skills of my childhood.  In some self justifying way it makes me feel a little better about my adolescent inadequacies.  Here Jesus lays out an incredibly thought provoking story of wheat and weeds.  In the parable we find that the wheat is good and the weeds are bad. Jesus reveals that both will be coexisting in this world until the final judgment.  This is a reality that causes turmoil for many people.  It is tough.  It is tough to understand why God doesn’t just deal with the evil right now?  Uproot the weeds now and be done with it! Then I come to realize, that I too was once a weed.  In fact, there are still so many weedy qualities in me that I shudder to think how God can love a weed such as I?

Perhaps God isn’t dealing with the evil sooner than we would want because there are still so many weeds that he longs to become wheat?  2 Peter 3:9 says, “God is patient and not willing that anyone should perish, but desires all to come to repentance.”

May we turn our eyes to living our lives in such a way that the weeds would long to become wheat before the final judgment inevitably comes.  Make no mistake…the judgment will come.  But until then, may the Holy Spirit draw every man, woman and child to put their trust and faith in Him.