I Want to be Buried Alive

I want to be buried alive. Ok, let me explain.

When I was twelve, I started growing things.  A popular decorating trend came along in the seventies that I implemented in the corner of my bedroom.  An aquarium garden. A variety of little green plants in a large clear glass fish bowl suspended from the ceiling in a hanging macramé holder. I felt part hippie and part green thumb as I watched my little plants grow.

Into adulthood, I continued to putter with things that grew in the dirt. But somewhere in mid-life I stopped.  I was away on business travel often and began to burden my family with keeping my flora watered. So I eliminated everything but the lowest maintenance plants.

Now with more time in retirement I’m growing things again. Last year I had a bumper crop of loofa to supply all my friends with the best facial scrub on the planet.  I’ve stumbled around with a flailing butterfly garden trying to attract monarchs to lay their eggs on my milkweed plants. My ferns and lantana and purple secretia have all gone wild. We began our fruit orchard with apple, lemon, and avocado trees for my husband’s birthday. Two out of three made it.

I love to think of the many rich spiritual analogies found in the Bible related to gardening. A favorite is the parable of the seed planted in different types of soil as the word of God is planted in different conditions of the heart. The Bible also compares our lives to seeds that must be let go and buried to reproduce.

This week another spiritual analogy came to mind as I planted a little celery plant in my garden. A few days earlier, I had placed the bottom of a bunch of celery in a bowl of water and it started regenerating itself just like Pinterest promised. A leafy celery top began to grow out of the stump, looking just like a miniature bunch of celery.

Like the new growth on the stump of celery, I have been regenerated in Christ’s likeness.

Ephesians 4:24 [NIV] says “and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

After the little celery growth got started, it needed to be planted in dirt so it could grow deeper roots downward and taller stalks upward.

Colossians 2:6-7 [NIV] “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

So that’s why I want to be buried alive. I want to plant my life in Him so he can continually regenerate me. So that my new growth looks more like Him and less like me. So I become so deeply rooted in Him that nothing can separate me from His love.  Growing tall and strong spiritually. And I hope to see you, my friends, growing in the row right beside me.