Beneath the Mower Deck

For the last thirty-six years I, like many, have engaged in the summer pleasure of mowing the grass. Each spring, the grass starts growing and each spring out comes the mower. Every fall, the grass goes dormant and the mower goes back into storage. It's just another cycle in my life.

Over the years I've cut many types of lawns, some have been hard and barren, others are lush and moist. I've cut rye, fescue, bermuda, dandelions, crab grass, monkey grass, nut grass, you name it. One thing they all have in common though is that the mower cuts them all. The mower is indiscriminate, it shows neither favor nor mercy and will just as ably cut down a field of lilies as it would a yard of bermuda.

In this is a parallel to our own state and this was brought to mind by today's verse;

1 Peter 1:24 (NIV)

²⁴ For,

“All men are like grass,

and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;

the grass withers and the flowers fall,

^[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984

Peter teaches here that all men are equal no matter their position in life. Whether living a life of poverty (as in a hard and barren yard) or living a life of luxury (as in a lush and moist yard) or living a life of fruitfulness (as a field of lilies), tThe fact of the matter is that death cuts them all down just as a mower does the grass. All man's vain attempts at glory are as the flowers of the grass; small, frail and tenuous. The flowers are blown away at the slightest wind and are seen no more. The grass itself is destined to die whether by drought, disease, abuse or old age. The end is the same.

God has planted us here for only a season and when our season is past, we shall be uprooted and removed. We will face our maker and be answerable for the decisions that we made. Whether we lived in a hard and barren yard or in a lush and moist lawn, we shall be accountable for how we lived.

So I am encouraged by this passage to redouble my efforts to "bloom where I'm planted." There will be seasons of drought and disease. Sometimes the yard I bloom in will be hard and unyielding. Other times it will be moist and inviting. But those are just the circumstances and tests to which I must rise and bloom nonetheless. Soon enough the mower will come and my season will be over. I have only this season to bloom so bloom I will.

Shalom,
Carl