Once and Done

Linking up with Kate and friends at Five Minute Friday. Come check out other thoughts on the word once!

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There is an obnoxious weed in my garden. Well, as you can see from the photo below, it’s very pretty, so some would call it a flower; however, anything that spreads everywhere whether I want it to or not, well, I call that a weed. In fact, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in my state of Wisconsin has put it on its “invasive plants” list.

I’m trying to get rid of it. Really, I am, but am finding it impossible to rid my gardens of it entirely. You can see it in the photo below in its early stages getting a foothold beneath the tulips in one of my flowerbeds.

Though its flower is lovely, it really is a rather sinister bully, crowding the life out the other flowers in its path. Try as I might to pull it out, poison it, dig it up, lop it off, and all of the other methods I have tried to eradicate it, I’m afraid there is no “once and done” cure for this garden malady. I will just have to deal with this deceptive beauty for as long as I’m tending this garden. When I try to pull it, leaving behind just a tiny bit of the hairy root will ensure more to come. Cutting off the flowers before they go to seed helps keep the seeds from being carried off to other flowerbeds in the wind, but does nothing to keep the flower from sending out its underground rhizomatous feelers everywhere around the base of the plant. There are no herbicides known to be effective in eradicating it.

It truly reminds me of the curse of sin and the futility of trying to eradicate sin in my life. I can try to cull out my bad habits, curb my tongue, keep my eyes from evil, but it’s of no use to try to fix myself. Just a little bit of sin results in the curse of death, and I am a natural born sinner from head to toe.

Thankfully, there is a ‘once and done’ cure for sin. His name is Jesus. He took those sins to the cross.

STOP