TEN YEARS GONE: Christ, the Gardener

First Published Tuesday, July 15, 2014*

The Mind of Christ, the Gardener

 Let both of them grow together until the harvest;

 --- From Matthew 13:24-30,36-43

God knows our thoughts. He knows the future. Our response? To focus. To resist the immediate and the carnal. To wait.

Patience is a deeply spiritual virtue. It gives us a measure of control—not over others or outcomes, but over our response to the world. And in doing so, it places us under God’s control. Patience opens our eyes to the quiet, often invisible, workings of divine magic.

The sinful nature sees only what’s in front of it—reacting to emotions, chasing after desires. But the spiritual person learns to see beyond the visible. She perceives the unseen. She nurtures patience. She grows in love. She learns to sacrifice.

Our “Me Generation” struggles with this. We’re taught to say, “I have to be true to myself.” Or, “I have to take care of myself first.”

But life isn’t a commercial flight with a safety lecture about placing your own oxygen mask first. No—this world is already in crisis. And some of us have already been equipped. That’s what it means to be “prepared”—our masks are already on. We’re okay. It’s others who are gasping for air.

And here’s the paradox: to see the urgency around us clearly, we must be patient. Because when we’re patient, we stop obsessing over ourselves. We begin to sense that there’s more—something eternal, something just beyond this life. When we’re led by the Spirit, we can endure anything… because we’ve tasted the Kingdom of God.

A gardener understands this. The plants cry out for water—you can see it in the fading color of their leaves. You see the weeds creeping in. The need is real, even urgent. But the gardener does not panic. The process is long. It spans months, with all kinds of weather. You water, a little. You weed. You return, again and again. You train your eyes to notice small changes. You develop a sensitivity to the health of what you’re growing.

That’s the difference.

Some people help the poor by talking about it. They make us feel guilty for not doing more. They urge us to vote for those who can speak eloquently about justice. The need is real—but their solution stops at speech.

But the true gardener goes into the field. They develop eyes to see even the faintest signs of despair. And they act. They’re too busy offering real help to be consumed by their own immediate, selfish needs.

Patience. God’s perspective. Quiet acts of love and kindness. These are the marks of someone being transformed—into the mind of Christ.

* The original was a little awkward and didn't flow well. It has been edited in 2025, with some help from AI.