Thought for Today
Job 31:40 let thorns grow instead of wheat, and foul weeds instead of barley." The words of Job are ended.
Hosea 10:4 They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so litigation springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.
Matthew 13:25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.
Matthew 13:40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
Why weeds? That question is probably a corollary to ‘Why mosquitos?’ Some pests and irritants I can understand. Cockroaches are nature’s scavengers, cleaning up debris. Pollens may be allergens, but they are instrumental in plant pollination. But on day 3, along with “Genesis 1:12 vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it,” why weeds?
During growing season, we often go out early in the morning to ‘work’ in the gardens.. This time of year, we go out very early in the morning. We went out this morning to plant some things we bought at the July 4th nursery sales. We are extending one of the flowerbeds in the back. As I removed grass from the extension and dug out the weeds in the existing bed, I wondered why God created weeds.
Of course, that kind of questioning leads to all sorts of inquiry. The ending of Job mentions thorns. Some of my earliest memories include helping my father with his roses. He loved roses; and, as I grew up, I would help weed, prune and feed his roses. When I started dating Greta, it all paid off. I could take her roses for almost every date! But, roses have thorns. Roses had thorns in the 1950s and 1960s; roses have thorns in the 21st century; roses probably had thorns in pharaonic Egypt. I’m sure that plant thorns evolved as a defense mechanism to prevent predation; but thorns also prick my fingers as I try to weed our own flowerbeds.
Weeds and thorns are mentioned in the Bible. Interestingly, in the New Testament, all of the references to weeds are in the 13th chapter of Matthew. For those of us who like to work in our yards, the references to weeds in parables probably help us get the point. But I am sure that there is more to the whole issue than a convenient way to help me understand the point of one of Jesus’ parables.
Why weeds? Why thorns? Why allergens? Why did God create Creation with disagreeable, inconvenient and irritating things? Should I even raise the questions, especially since Greta will be reading this? Might I not like her answer?
Some things are always disagreeable, inconvenient and/or irritating. As Hosea noted, some weeds are poisonous. Thorns that become embedded on one’s fingers or arms can become infected and cause health problems.
In the same vein of questioning, why are some animals carnivores, thereby necessitating a hierarchal food chain? Would ours be a better world without weeds, thorns, allergens or predators? If life is a gift from God, isn’t anything inimical to life a threat to the gift from God? Yet, God built such threats into God’s Creation!
Is competition built into God’s gift of life? Competition for resources, for the basic necessities for maintaining the life God has given every living entity. All the crops we farm for food, all the plants and trees we plant for beautification compete with weeds for basic nutrients to maintain life. Within the food chain, animals compete with other animals to obtain the basic nutrients required to maintain life. And, of course, all humans compete with each other for many of the elements of our own lives.
Do I understand why God created Creation this way, with this inherent competition? Am I even capable of understanding why God did so? Obviously not. I was an engineer. I did design some things. I cannot even begin to imagine the challenge to create something on the level of complexity of God’s design. On top of that, God created Creation from nothing. Before that, in order to initiate the whole thing, God created time itself. “Genesis 1:1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.”
Thankfully, I don’t need to understand. All I need to do is love God and love my neighbors. While I do that, I will also continue to thank God every chance I get . . . and wonder, “Why weeds?”
Stay safe, marvel at God’s Creation, trust God,
Pastor Ray