By Pamela Olivetree
By the fruit you shall know them, and be nourished with every good thing.
I never thought I’d hear wisdom in worms, but since “vermicomposting” is a new hobby of mine, I not only have worms, but am starting to appreciate their quiet, little voices.
And their remarkable deeds!
But first, I had to get my hands dirty. I did this by purchasing a “worm hotel” of sorts: a stackable system of trays for feeding vegetable and paper scraps to the worms, and then collecting their dung for use in the garden. In the process of doing all this, I learned many interesting things about worms.
Did you know that the world would have a critical garbage problem, and depleted soil issues, (more than it does already) if it wasn’t for the tiniest of creatures such as microbes and worms? A single red wiggler, for example, can recycle 10 pounds of material every year – transforming our “waste” into something useful and nutritious.
Another very interesting thing is that what goes into a worm, and then comes out the other end, are practically two different things. Worm castings (i.e.”poop”) is actually called “black gold” to gardeners, because of how nutritionally dense it is. Soil that my worms process is miraculously 5 times richer in nitrogen, 10 times in potassium, 7 times in phosphate, 1.5 times in calcium and 3 times richer in magnesium!
It is amazing how the Creator shows us His heart through nature. In His ultimate design, nothing is wasted of all He creates.
You Shall Know Them By their – Dung?
Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them – Mark 7:15
Often in religious circles there is an emphasis on the “garbage” we shouldn’t watch, listen to, or fellowship with. At the same time the Bible is promoted as the most organically “safe” thing to read. Which is misleading, because no two people, if they really get down to it, totally agree on everything the Bible teaches. Jesus said the religious leaders knew the Scriptures well, and yet missed the whole point of them. And history proves many terrible things have been justified with Bible verses.
No, there’s nothing “safe” about the Bible. It has an imperfect and raw form to it, and it needs proper assimilation to transform the organic matter contained in it (Christ) into life-giving words. As it is with anything! More and more I’m convinced of something….
It is not so much what we eat that is most important, as it is how we eat.
As I see it, this is Jesus’ point when dealing with the religious lawyers of His day. They read the Old Testament as a rule book and focused on the external “do’s and don’ts” of religion, while all along their “shitty” (pun intended) behavior was being covered up. Things like being proud, divisive, stingy with money, gossiping and slander, doing things for the praise of men, and an argumentative and fearful approach to the new thing Jesus was bringing … these are just some of the unclean things that seemed to be “pooping out” of these judges. And these were only the obvious things. How much more was hidden in their private lives?
To the Pure all Things Are Pure, Titus 1:15
If you are like me, you try to eat healthy, organic, and non-processed foods. But you don’t beat yourself up for occasionally eating things that are less than perfect. We’d be miserable and paranoid if we did! Not to mention there is so much we don’t even see and know about, such as chemicals that leach in through the packaging, or that is in the air and products all around us. In fact, if we worried about all these things at the same time of eating a fresh, organic vegetable salad, for example, it is unlikely that the full benefit of the salad would even get into us! Stress and fear is a hinderance for healthy digestion and assimilation.
On the other hand, maybe our choices are limited at a certain time and we end up eating a Big Mac and fries. But if we eat it with thankfulness, joy, and in fellowship with God and others – can not this food be sanctified unto our body’s health? I believe it can. (See 1 Timothy 4:5)
Interestingly, my lowly, dirty worms have helped me to understand better what it means, “to the pure all things are pure.” It doesn’t mean everything that we take into our 5 senses is pure, in and of itself. But it does mean that the vital, spiritual organs of faith and love give the “pure in heart” the ability to see Christ in ways and places that others may not, and thus produce life-giving results. It may be from the Bible, or it may be from other things and people that are expressing the glory of God. Loving God in relationship opens up the eyes to see the whole world as a living parable of good things to draw from. When my brother was in love with his now-wife, he said that he once saw her smiling face in his breakfast eggs, and it cheered his heart while being apart! I thought that was a beautiful example of how love brings color, light, and a fresh meaning to the even the most mundane things of life.
Treasures out of Trash
Yes, the humble worm is a simple, but amazing creature that does an important job under the ground recycling raw, harsh waste into something that is beneficial and useful. God’s children on the other hand, have their job above ground, of bringing heaven to earth, little by little, by overcoming evil with good, renewing their thoughts, and nourishing the world with their loving deeds!
Never underestimate the small things.
The mouth speaks what the heart is full of,
and a good person brings good things
out of the good that is stored up in them.
Matt 12:34-35