🌿 Perfect Love Pulls Weeds
A garden reflection on fear, care, and why we weed
Have you ever noticed that we don’t weed our gardens because we’re afraid of weeds?
We weed because we love what we planted.
It’s a quiet thing, kneeling in the soil—fingertips pressing past clumps of earth to grip the roots of an unwelcome intruder. There’s no panic. No drama. Just a quiet resolve that says, “Not here. Not around the ones I’m nurturing.”
Fear doesn’t fuel my hands when I weed. Love does.
And that reminds me of something deeply spiritual:
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear…”
—1 John 4:18
We don’t tend to our gardens out of fear of what might happen if we don’t.
We tend them because we believe in the life growing there.
And that’s how God tends to us. He doesn’t yank out the weeds in our hearts with judgment or force. He gently removes what chokes us because He loves us. Deeply. Personally. Patiently.
Fear might keep us frozen—unsure of what’s worth saving.
Love moves in. Love gets its hands dirty. Love protects what’s tender.
In my own life, fear has often whispered,
“What if this isn’t good enough?”
“What if you fail?”
“What if you’re too much… or not enough?”
But the voice of love says,
“You’re rooted in something bigger than fear.”
“Let’s make space for what’s growing.”
So this week, I invite you to look at the garden of your life.
Where have you let fear grow like a weed?
Where have you not moved forward because you thought you had to be perfect first?
Then ask this instead:
What would love do here?
Because perfect love—God’s love—doesn’t just remove fear like a tyrant yanking weeds.
It casts it out with presence. With care. With confidence in what can grow.
So go ahead—pull that weed. Not because you’re afraid of what it might become…
…but because you’re already nurturing what you’re becoming.
And friend? That’s worth tending to.
🪴 With you in the garden,
—Eileen Colette
Think like a plant.