Lessons from a Porch Plant

If you don’t think God cares about you, try growing some plants. I wouldn’t say it’s life changing, but it has shown me so simply that God shows Himself in the details of our lives.  

I’m no expert- I buy plants that I think are pretty, throw them in a pot, water them when I think about it, and just wait and see what happens. I admit, it’s not a great system. 

Back in the spring, I got this little green and purple plant. It was one of my best ones, it grew really well and was just a cute little porch friend. Plot twist though, as hard as it is to believe, I eventually killed it. But I’m going to blame it on the sun…it burnt to a crisp. Normal people would have probably just gotten rid of it then. Not me, I just left this pitiful, burnt plant on my porch for weeks. I’m not proud of it, it’s just my life as it pertains to plants. Today however, I decided it was time. Time to get rid of the poor thing. 

I started pulling all the dead stuff out of the pot and underneath the handfuls of crunchy remains, something caught my eye. I kept digging the dead stuff out and underneath was the brightest, greenest little sprig of cute that has ever grown in that cheap blue flower pot. I would have never even known it was there had I not removed what was dead. You know where I’m going with this... My little trivial porch plant reminded me today that no matter how hopeless it feels, there’s still hope. And God quietly and sweetly reminded me: there’s still hope and life in you in the midst of loss and hopeless seasons. But, I have to remove (well, allow God work in me to remove) the dead dried remains of my heart to make room for the new life. Remove the sin, remove the bitterness, remove the disappointment, remove the cynicism. There’s still life under there if we will give it some room and do a little bit of work. Let’s be about this heart work. I want to grow into something that when others see me, they see and feel life and love radiating from me. I want others to know through my life, that there is still hope even if the situation seems dead and hopeless.