For the last couple of weeks I have been pulling bindweed. I find it in my garden at home, in the church’s front gardens as well as a public garden on my usual path between home and the church. In all three places, I see bindweed.
If I’ve not been to one particular garden recently, I can see it attempting to take over the plants completely. It is waving its little tentacle leaves up above the plant, looking for something else that it can climb. If it can’t find anything else, it will start twisting around itself to make a stalk that it can use to continue its upward progression. Left to itself it will come to completely cover any object that it can climb upon. It climbs fences as well as other plants.
It is present in lawns, putting up pretty little flowers that look quite nice. The problem is that it will continue to grow and will fight to choke out the grass as well. It even has been known to try to take over artificial grass! If it can make a hole in it, it will try to spread over concrete as well, attempting to take over driveways and sidewalks.
It also creeps around under the ground. It’s root system allows it to spread without being seen to new areas of the garden. It also seems to send out tendrils which then attach to the ground wherever it is so that if the parent plant is pulled, it can still survive on its own. It is tenacious and very very difficult to eradicate!
My neighbour, Linda, and I regularly chat while pulling bindweed from the garden we share between our laneways. Somehow, there is always enough for a handful each almost every day. The other day we had missed a day or so, and we each had a couple of large handfuls!
Bindweed is also a mimic. It can be really hard to spot embedded in myrtle, also known as periwinkle. Often weeds will do that, blending into the plants around them in the hopes that the gardener won’t see them and pull them. But the shape of the leaves is different, and once we start to spot the bindweed, we start seeing it more and more clearly.
Sin is defined as that which comes between us and God, or us and other people. Like bindweed, it starts out small and can easily be pulled out if we take the time to do so. Sometimes it seems harmless, just a little white lie, or a lack of regard that grows into a pattern of behaviour that starts to break down our faith in God or our relationships with each other. Over time, if we don’t keep a watch out, like bindweed, it can eventually grow to take over our whole life.
There is no quick or easy way to get rid of bindweed. It takes constant attention over a long period of time, daily pulling whatever small shoots we find, which forces the plant to keep working to keep its root system alive. Eventually even the roots die, if we keep pulling off the vines. Keeping our lives weed-free is an ongoing challenge, whether the weeds are literal or spiritual. Have fun gardening this summer!
