About six weeks ago, I noticed a vine of kudzu creeping across my driveway. That Saturday, I knew I had to take care of it. I looked it up on the Internet to find out how to get rid of it because I knew if I didn’t take care of it, it would eventually take over. Kudzu was introduced to the United States in the nineteenth century as an ornamental plant and as a measure of soil conservation. It was considered to be beautiful, but it is very invasive and grows at an accelerated pace, in certain circumstances, a foot a day. If left alone, it can smother trees, blocking the light of the sun, and eventually killing them. I read that you shouldn’t cut or trim the vine because that encourages growth rather than killing it. Instead, you must destroy the root crown, which is where the vine gets its life and sustenance. I have an awesome neighbor who helped me dig up the root, so hopefully that is the last time we will see Mr. Kudzu.
I hadn’t thought about that anymore until this morning on my drive in to work when I noticed several fence lines covered in kudzu, trees along the road where kudzu is working its way up the trunk, and an abandoned house where one side is completely covered by kudzu. The thought struck me that this is how sin is in our lives. Satan paints a pretty picture at first and makes whatever sin he entices us with look “ornamental,” but he doesn’t show us the end where sin will take us to the place here it becomes invasive to our lives. We can’t just trim a little of it because if we don’t get the root of the sin, it encourages sin to grow and spread to other areas of our lives. A “little” sin here may lead to a “bigger” sin there … and I mean little and big in our eyes, for God only sees one size. When we allow the sin to continue to grow, it will eventually smother us, it will grow until we can no longer feel or see the light of the Son, and will kill us, spiritually for sure and sometimes literally too. Our house (our lives) will be like the abandoned house I saw this morning where kudzu had taken over the outside. Sin not only will take over your outside, but worse it will take over your inside, changing your heart against God. Just like I needed help from my neighbor to dig up the root of that kudzu vine, we need help to get rid of the sin in our lives. We can’t do it on our own. The only way to get rid of sin is to accept the gift of salvation, by claiming Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and allowing Him to dig up the root crown of sin in our lives.
Watch Michelle Hanna’s interview on BabBie’s House to learn how Michelle was inspired to write the devotional “Is Kudzu Growing at Your House?”
Like what you’ve read? Read the full passage when you order a signed copy of the devotional, Reflections of God’s Grace below.
