Most of you have heard about my plant that is like 20 years old. It was my dad’s plant and ironically he brought it the same year he passed away, so when I left home my mom gave it to me.
As most plants do, it has gone thru a lot of changes from summer to winter and the natural roots expand and deplete which can cause it to loose its vibrancy as well.
Well, "baby" is what I call my plant was looking quite sickly a few weeks ago. I had her in the kitchen which seemed to be the room in which she always did well in, but she looked so unhappy. So I went over to her and started to talk to her, I know that sounds weird, but I do this with all my flowers and plants, and I do feel they respond in some way, but getting back to the story, I said, well what’s wrong, you not happy in here anymore?
Leaning to my own understanding, I fixed her a plant smoothie which is just plant food and poured it into her pot. For sure I thought that would bring her to life, but later that night, it made the situation worse.
I was like, wow, maybe I’m going to loose her. Plants die out just like anything else does.
But I felt like I didn’t want to give up on her just yet. So I moved her to the den and I put her in front of the bay window to see what that would do. Well I got home and she looked like she had had a sun stroke. All her stems were brittle and the ones hanging down were weak and dying off.
I was like aww wow, baby what is wrong?
I looked at her and rotated the pot towards me a couple of times and it seemed as if she was saying, "I’m not happy with the way I look."
So I was like huh…but the stems are so long they were almost sweeping the floor, (that really should have caught my attention because she is not a vine that runs, but she is a round broad leafed plant). Some of the older Saints may have heard the name "Prayer Plant."
I also noticed by this time she would have reproduced a new crop of little ones. But there was nothing there. No blooms to confirm the birthing or nothing.
So I went to get a garbage bag from the kitchen to really think of disposing her, but as I looked closely at one of the stems lying on the floor I noticed it was only brown and brittle mid-way. The part above that still had life, it was still green.
By this time I went and put my glasses on and could really see the damage being done. Baby needed to be pruned.
The portion of the plant that I thought was so attractive needed to be cut-off, in order for the new growth to take place.
I got my scissors and began to feel the stem up to the portion where it was firm, and began to cut away.
When I was finished you should have seen her smiling at me.
As if to say, "Thank you I feel so much better" and you know what Saints, she looked better too. She was standing so firm and had broadened out just that quick.
Well I saw the change in a matter of minutes and do you know the very next day, baby bloomed with little white flowers.
….she reproduced!!
She had created some babies and was on the next cycle of life.
Little Max said Mommy look at baby now…did you see her flowers?
All I could do was smile and say, yeahp I see them.
The point in all this is sometimes, we can be in our favorite room, with our favorite clothes, slippers, food or whatever we feel is our favorite thing to do, yet be so unhappy.
Hoping and wishing we could scream out and break out and tell someone what is wrong with us. Even though God already knows, confession for that thing is good for the soul.
All we need is some pruning; that cutting away of the old and useless material that leaves us lifeless and un-producing. Sure Baby was in the soil, her roots were tucked away nice and neat but the outer part of her would have eventually took a toll on the roots and she soon with have died.
Like us, the outer part or the world, gets a hold of us and causes us to decay, become lethargic and fizzle out. Soon all you have is a building with no life in it and with a real plant the soil becomes infected and the roots are ate up, in our cases that would be sin or disobedience.
It is not always the obvious sins (like drinking & smoking) that require pruning. It is those hidden secrets that we deny. I was in denial with baby, she’s beautiful is what I thought of her stems. They are so long and flowing how could she be sick? But common sense should have told me she is not supposed to look like that, she is not a vine. All that unwanted tangle of mess on her was weighing her down of what she really wanted to be.
She wanted to be cleaned up and moved into another atmosphere that wasn’t the norm. The kitchen seemed to be such a dull place I guess after awhile, but when she was moved to the den and pruned she began to produce. The reproduction in her took place instantaneous. For the very next day she had proof of what she had accomplished…..blooms that could be seen.
That’s what God wants us to do too. Get in a different realm so that we may be purged and pruned and start reproducing where the gift of life can take place overnight. It can happen.
I was shocked and here I am thinking I know my plants.
Yet in still I saw her death before death even wanted to be seen.
Why do we do that?
Why do we give up and die before asking for pruning and purging?
Why do we feel we cannot do or be what God has called us into?
Why do we deny the power of God’s calling?
A mere plant was in distress, showing all kinds of signs to say "HELP" look at me. When I poured the smoothie on the dirt, I’m sure the soil was like, huh, what’s this??
I need to be shaped!!
I wanna grow some more and that would only come by getting rid of the useless parts. Which were the parts that I wanted to keep on her. That sounds so crazy, ‘cause we think we know what is best.
So I took what was shown to me and asked Him to prune me. I don’t like the way I look. I got some tangles on me and some unwanted debris that keeps trying to cut the life source from me.
So Lord if you would, could you work on me?
So that I may birth forth like the white blooms of a flower. Could you bring life into my dead situations so that I do not unaware cut-off my blessings from you.
Set me in another room where the light may be received from the glory of you and let me sprout up with confidence of who I am and who I belong to. Could you let my dwelling place be enlarged around me and my soil be enriched with the food from your word?
And lastly Lord your word says the fruit of my womb is blessed. The very fibers that make up him have been touched by you and Could you bless him to do good?
As I close on this, let me say, one day Big Max was sitting in the den one morning and he told me he could hear baby’s leaves unraveling, she sits on the opposite side of the room.
But her leaves unraveled in praise and it was heard!!
That’s what pruning does. It frees us up so that we may praise.
So I was just wondering not trying to be something that I am not, but I am a witness of Christ and his goodness.
Can we unravel for the Lord in praise as he prunes us and how he notices our issues and sends help our way?
Can we just Praise the Lord for caring enough to come to our safety and bring us back to life? Can we just praise God for his many works and for his unfailing mercy today?
Can we praise God for the fruit of our labor and our awesome
Men and Women of God who shall be purged and come forth as pure gold today?
Can we just thank God for our examples on how he wants us to live?
Can we just exalt God because he is the life giver and the manner of all wisdom?
Can we just thank God for shedding the old and welcoming in the new?
