Purple Basil Nightmare

By Susan Dollyhigh –

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Mark 14:38, NIV).

One day, I saw and purchased a beautiful, ornamental purple basil plant thinking it just the right addition for my little herb garden. This plant grew very fast. The dark purple, frilly leaves were beautiful and it smelled wonderful. I enjoyed its beauty all summer long. When winter came, the basil plant died and I soon forgot it.

Spring came and I looked at my garden and saw little, purple basil plants coming up all over the place. I felt so proud. Boy, do I have a green thumb. Those little plants just kept coming up, and coming up, and coming up. Before long, they were trying to take over my entire garden. Hold on there, I have some other things planted in this garden. I didn’t want to just pull up the basil but I had to give the giant hibiscus a little space. And my purple salvia and lilies were completely surrounded by basil. Then, I started noticing the purple plants in my other flower gardens.

Soon my neighbor told me she had purple basil coming up in her garden. “Just sharing,” I told her with a neighborly wave as I backed up to return home. It became a serious problem when my Aunt Millie, who lives in the house below me, told me that my Uncle David had taken a strange, purple plant to the city horticulturist because it was coming up all in their yard.  Soon my section of the neighborhood had become a purple basil nightmare. I was even pulling it from the cracks in the sidewalk.

That purple basil plant was beautiful. I hadn’t seen any harm in it. I just wanted to enjoy its beauty and fragrance. My experience with this plant sounds like what happens in our lives. The purple basil may be anything Satan puts in our path. It may be beautiful and fragrant. It may make us feel good. But before we know what has happened, it has taken over the garden of our lives and choked out the things we really wanted to keep. The hazard is it may even spread and affect people around us.

I should have found out more about that basil before I planted it. The horticulturist told my neighbor that it spreads and takes over everything.

We need to be aware of those appealing, beautiful traps that Satan puts in our lives because they too can spread and take over everything. God’s word and His Spirit living in us will help us to be alert before the purple basil nightmare occurs in our lives.