Bear with me here, this is an extended metaphor.
I have often thought of myself as a large house surrounded by gardens. Each room or section of garden represents a different part of myself. The front gardens are the parts everyone can see, the rooms in the house are parts of my mind, and there are smaller walled-off places in the back that are more hidden parts of myself like my heart.
Well, the whole thing is getting ripped apart right now. For some reason, the King of the place has decided that a large part needs to be torn up and replaced. I didn’t know at first why He was doing it. It’s very painful, and very hard work. And really, I didn’t think the place looked all that bad. It wasn’t beautiful or anything, but I thought it was pleasant enough.
It turns out that beneath all of the nice cute little flowers there were hoards of vicious worms and bugs and all manner of rottenness down among the roots. They’re all coming out now that everything’s being moved. It’s very humiliating and upsetting, and not just to me. It’s upsetting to anyone who has been admitted to these closer places.
It’s amazing what can be unearthed after years of complacency. Gardens as well as people must be continually tended, dug up, cultivated, if they are to be kept productive and healthy.
13 total marks.