by Recently I was cleaning up the fallen, autumn leaves from an old, twisted ornamental cherry tree and it dawned on me that as I was cleaning the garden it was looking quite nice and pristine. Then a thought emerged, “This must be how we look before God when we sin and how we look when we clean ourselves up through confessing our sins to our Lord.” First, we look dirty and untidy and then we pray according to I John 1:9. Second, God is faithful to forgive us and then we look all pretty and pristine before our Lord.
I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I started having some fun thoughts about cleaning up the leaves/sins in our lives. The thought occurred to me to create an analogy to compare leaves to sin while cleaning. Sin is not something that is fun, but maybe this will give us a new way of looking at the sin in our lives and prayerfully we will keep ourselves tidier before our Lord.
Here it goes.
- Leaves represent sin.
- The whole garden is our Christian Character (what the world sees).
- The white shells represent our purity before the Lord.
Below are some thoughts the Lord gave me while cleaning up the fallen leaves:
1. Each leaf represents one sin. Amazing how many leaves fell in three days. The photo at the top was leaf fall of just three days. If we are not careful, we can easily sin quite a bit in a few days and not even realize it.
2. Also, I had to get down on my knees to clean up the fallen leaves. We need to get down on our knees in prayer to the Lord.
Psalm 95:6-7 “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God…”
3. Some leaves were yucky from bird poo and snail slime. Some sins we may think are not too bad. “It’s just a little white lie.” One may think to excuse a sin. But a lie is just as bad as a murder in God’s eyes. He puts it in the same list in Revelation. Answer this question, “How many murders does it take to make one a murder?” Now ask yourself this, “How many lies does it take to make one a liar?” Think on this. (1 lie per month for 30 years equals 360 lies) Hmmm. See how sins can certainly become yucky very quickly in God’s eyes?
Revelation 21:8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars…”
4. Some leaves hurt my hands when I picked them out of the prickly bromeliad (green clump to the left in the photo). Some sins may hurt us to confess and give up because we want to hold onto them and not let them go. But we must confess all sins and let them go according to God’s Word. In the end, the prickly bromeliad looked great! Anyone can look better in God’s eyes if one is willing confess and give up even those sins that hurt that one may want to hold onto.
5. Picking up the fallen leaves was a job that had to be done with bare hands. There was no easy way to do it. I could not use a rake as that would rake up the charming white shells. I also could not grab handfuls of leaves because again I would pick up the delicate white shells with each handful of leaves.
The white shells are not cheap or easy to replace. They are costly and sometimes the stores do not have the bags of white shells in stock and to collect them from the beach takes a long, long time. Just like our purity before the Lord and our Christian Character/Testimony before the world – if we damage it or lose it (due to sin), it is costly to replace.
6. If I do not clean up the leaves every few days during Autumn – it is hard to clean them up because they start decomposing and falling apart. Best to clean up the leaves on a daily basis. The photo at the top represents three days of no cleaning. If I go three days without cleaning up the leaves, it can take 45-60 minutes to tidy up the garden.
We need to keep sin confessed so we do not have to spend heaps of time confessing sin when we need to get a hold of God immediately. We never know when we will need to get a hold of God in a prayer and need emergency help, but he does not hear us if we regard iniquity/sin in our hearts.
Psalm 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me”
7. I almost did not clean up the leaves on the back part of the path because it would not be seen in the “before” and “after” photo. It is a small part of the path behind the bromeliad. Then, I thought 
of our lives and sin which we do not like to clean up. Some sins we clean up because they can be seen by other people. Some sins we do not clean up because we like to hold onto them because we think no one can see them. What we forget is that God sees everything, even our most hidden sins that are behind closed and locked doors.
Proverbs 15:3 “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
8. Once I cleaned up all the leaves, there were things visible that I could not see before. A few things that could now be more easily seen were the bright red orchid, small purple flowers inside the bromeliad, and green berries of the clivia plants spr
outing new life.
I thought of how this represented the Christian life when sin is confessed and cleaned up in our lives. The people around us can more easily see the fruit of the Spirit in our walk with the Lord. We won’t look like hypocrites and prayerfully, we can more easily see our friends and neighbours won for Christ.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance…”
9. If the leaves are left on top the rocks for too long, they easily slip under the rocks due to rain and winds. Then they are harder to find and pick out since they are hidden and starting to decompose under the rocks.
If we do not confess our sins daily, they slip under the rocks and are forgotten. We can get caught up sinning on a regular basis and not even realize it. Example, “How many times have you told the family, ‘Oh do not answer the phone. I do not want to talk to that person.’” That is habitually lying. “Hmm? Ouch that kind of slipped under the rocks didn’t it?” Do not fret though, it happens to us all. We all get caught up in things we do not think about and we can be sinning on a regular basis, not realizing it, and letting those sins slip under the rocks. I am so glad that God cleanses us from “all” our sins. I John 1:9 “…he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
10. This was not a thought from the original garden but a thought from a new water feature we put in another garden. I have added this here because it fits with the analogy of comparing leaves to sin.
A large fallen, yellow leaf was laying on the edge of our waterfall one night with the light striking it perfectly. I had to grab my camera and take a photo. Then the next morning, the leaf had dropped from the waterfall; it was not as bright and beautiful anymore. It was quickly turning brown. Then I thought. Sometimes sin can look so beautiful and attractive. We just want to grab it regardless of the consequences. But we know sin is only beautiful for a season, then the season is gone, and the consequences of the sin is brown and dead in our lives like the brownish leaf at the bottom of the waterfall.
Hebrews 11:24-25 “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;”
In closing, this was the analogy God gave to me while cleaning the fallen leaves in my garden. I pray this is some encouragement to us all to keep the leaves cleaned up in our lives.
I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Before and After Photos
