Xeriscaping

I John 2:7-11

The dry climate has always made maintaining a nice lawn difficult in New Mexico. For hundreds of years, people only used native plants for decoration. As people from the East, used to a wetter climates moved to our state, they missed the lush greenery they were used to and pushed for restrictive covenants requiring lawns and landscaping to produce it. Irrigation was able to produce in the desert what occurred naturally in wetter climates.

Today, a burgeoning population, and increasing usage of water for industrial purposes has raised water usage to levels that water is becoming scarce. Cities are finding it necessary to restrict water usage, and residents of some communities are finding themselves caught between the demands of restrictive covenants and city restrictions. They can be fined for using too much water, and for not having a satisfactory landscape. Xeriscaping, or low water usage landscaping does not produce the lush effect demanded by the covenants. People have been forced to give up their homes because they could not afford to meet both standards.

Natural landscaping is considered a new idea, yet it has only been in the last hundred years or so that people have demanded lawns and decorative landscaping. Areas where rainfall made the grass grow naturally had lawns, but dry areas did not. We are just going back to the older standard, although some people view it as a radical and abnormal change to be prevented.

Christianity is often viewed as a new and radical change from the old ways, and Christian standards are rejected by many religious groups. Even groups which purport to be Christian hold traditional standards other than what Christ taught. For them, John’s teaching seems new and dangerous.

“Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” (I John 2:7-8)

The Jews had been given the old Testament law in Moses’ day. It was a standard that the Jews were to live by in order to receive earthly blessings. Deuteronomy 7:12-16 describes the results of obeying Gods commands, while Deuteronomy28:58-68 describes the consequences of failure to obey the law. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said, “ Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Christian standards are intended to accomplish what the Law intended.

The restrictive covenants were intended to establish a satisfactory standard of landscaping for the communities. Unfortunately the demands were abnormal and became difficult to meet, demanding constant watering, mowing, trimming and fertilizing. Natural landscaping, or xeriscaping eliminates almost all the above chores while still providing an attractive landscape. Ultimately, the covenants could be summed up as people were to keep their places looking nice.

Stated that the entire law could be summed up in two simple commandments in Matthew 22:37-40. “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” The new command he gave is just a simplified, and more easily met version of the old law. John 13:34 expresses the new command. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

Jesus went on to say that it was through the demonstration of that love that others would know whether we actually knew the Lord in John 13:35. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Just as love for our parents will cause us to accept and even love our siblings, love for God will produce acceptance and love for his other children.

“He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” (I John 2:9-11)

Dogs naturally hunt and kill rabbits, yet a dog who loves his master will not harm his master’s pet rabbit because his master loves it. A dog which is jealous of other pets loves what he gets from the master but does not love the master himself. So called Christians who attack other Christians are more in love with themselves than with the Lord. They are living in the dark and there is no darkness in the Lord. They are going to stumble and fall into sin because they do not know the truth, they have no light.