Growing in the Gospel: A 5-Day DevotionalSample

The Fruit of the Garden

Sometimes gospel reminders come in ordinary places—like a freshly pruned rose bed in the middle of winter. In those dark, dreary months, with spring not yet visible on the horizon, the deadness can be striking—brown, thorny stalks hacked down to nothing; spindly, green cuttings lying in a heap nearby; a hopeless-looking situation were it not for the promise of this decay being swallowed up in a matter of months by sweet-smelling blossoms. Pruning has to happen before blooming.

As winter turns to spring each year, these signs of resurrection surround us. Death and dormancy give way to life, each season’s foliage a bit brighter and bigger than the last. It’s like all of creation—from flower beds to parks to mountain meadows—can’t wait to tell us that God is in the business of growing something new.

Is. 61:11, speaking of our Messiah, says that “As the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.” In his death, Christ the righteous one was buried like a seed in the ground. But then he erupted from it as the triumphant shoot of Jesse (Is. 11:1), bringing our dying souls back to life with him.

What does this mean for us as moms? We may feel the winter of our sin today—a harsh response to our child’s disobedience, the weary fight against our own selfishness, complaint as we survey our to-do list—but in Christ, we’re being turned over to new life day by day. Like a stubby brown rose bush in winter, there is growth stirring inside, the transformation of our souls by grace into a fragrance and a fruitfulness we never saw coming (2 Cor. 2:15; Gal. 5:22-23). Because our Savior died and rose again, spring is coming. “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).