With the coming of spring each year, I love to paint the landscape around our home with an array of flowering, colorful plants. My daughter, for the life of her, does not understand my quest in doing this each year! Though planted in the cooler weather of spring, the heat of the Southern summer months leads to less than desirable weather for the upkeep of my gardening exploits. There is watering, fertilizing, and deadheading to be done for optimum growth and beauty. Of course you grasp the idea watering and fertilizing, but perhaps you are not a gardener and “deadheading” is a new term for you. I copied this definition from a gardening website.
“In order to encourage new growth, ensure overall plant health, keep flower beds looking neat, and allow for bigger and brighter blooms proper deadheading is essential for annual and perennial plants. When you rid your flowering plants of spent blooms, you ensure that the remaining blooms and plant will not be deprived of any energy and nutrients being wasted on old blooms.”
Perhaps “deadheading” has a life application for us as well. Let’s explore that possibility for a moment. From my own experience and hearing that of others, I believe that beauty and growth in our relationship with the Lord is frequently inhibited by the deadheads we refuse to pluck from our lives. The deadheads to which I am referring are past sins which plague us though Jesus has completely and utterly forgiven and forgotten those sins. If we believe in Him and ask His forgiveness, those acts with which continually Satan tries to condemn us no longer have power over our lives unless we allow it. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” The blood of Jesus shed on the cross has covered us and washed us clean. We need only to pluck away and permanently discard the deadhead remnants which litter our “washed white as snow” lives.
As the definition above explains, deadheads left unattended will deprive the plant of energy and nutrients needed for maximum beauty and overall health. All efforts invested in that plant are cancelled out by the spent blooms. Time for us to pluck and permanently discard the deadhead remnants of our hearts and souls. Jesus has done the rest. Often, we need a reminder of that. All the time we must remind Satan of that. And the result is a life with bigger, brighter, more exquisite blooms mirroring the beauty of Christ. Constant care and attention is what makes a garden beautiful. No less is required for the garden that is our life. Deadheading is an ongoing process for which God is ever present to come alongside you and offer assistance. With each deadhead you pluck, you defeat the power of sin. Slip on your gloves, grab your pruning shears, and get busy! What beauty you have to bring to this world. To God Be the Glory!