In The Garden~

     In the garden one morning I found a big fat tomato hornworm on the cherry tomato plant,  the worm is pretty huge with a voracious appetite and would have been certain death for the plant if I hadn't found and removed it! It had already stripped the leaves from several stems.
     A few days later when I went to the garden I found another tomato plant starting to wilt and not looking well at all! I started looking more closely at the plant expecting to find another tomato hornworm, but as I brushed a leaf I saw little, tiny white flecks fly up. It was little, itty-bitty leaf hoppers! Often a spiritual lesson is brought to me by things of this world that I observe; the small, still voice of God speaks to me and I learn lessons that transfer from life situations to spiritual situations. 
     The lesson that day was that people often feel only the big errors or sins, like the big tomato hornworm, are worth their battles or of any real threat to their spirit and that something as tiny as a snowflake, the leaf-hoppers can't be too dangerous.
     We need to be vigilant even against the tiny sins. If we're not alert, we never even see some of the little sins slip in and suck the very life from our spirit! But there is even a scripture that warns to deal with the little sins so they don't ruin our fruit! 

“Catch the foxes for us, yes, the little foxes! They are ruining the vineyards when our vineyards are in bloom!” Song of Solomon 2:15

     

     We need to understand that for the Christian, there are no big or little sins, God calls them all sin, period!        The big worm was obvious and could eat the whole plant in just a couple of days, but the the little leaf hoppers went easily unnoticed until the plant started wilting and then it was a major battle! While I could pull the big worm off of the tomato plant and save it, I was not able to save the plant with the little leaf hoppers! I did try! I Googled leaf hoppers and followed all of the recommended steps, but the plant was too weak and the leaf hoppers too determined. 
     The spiritual moral to this story? While you still are able...take the little things/sins in life seriously, get rid of them! 
     We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back.  Hebrews 12:1b