While I secretly wish I was a master gardener, and am fairly knowledgeable about the plants growing outside our house, I confess our indoor plants are a greater challenge. We have coffee plants, a fiddle-leaf fig, a rubber tree, snake plants, peace lilies, a monstera, countless succulents, and many more only my daughter knows the names of. The challenge is that these plants should, by natural order, probably be growing in a tropical environment somewhere. Is there too much water or not enough water? Is the pot too big or too small? Is there too much light or not enough light? Given the magical ratios of light, water, nutrition, drainage, and temperature, the plants can be beautiful.
Having plants abide in my Wisconsin house (which is not designed to be their home) requires frequent attention. The plants can’t get what they need on their own so my family tends to them and finds joy in successfully navigating the challenges; nurturing the plants to not only survive but thrive. Just ask my husband about the ‘coffee empire’ he will someday have! Wink.
Just like the plants in my house, my true home is not this mortal coil. Like the plants, which produce cleaner air, lovely textured leaves, and flowers, I am to produce the good fruit of patience, kindness, goodness, etc. Just as the plant requires an entity outside itself to stay alive, I require spiritual sustenance outside my own strength. If I moved my indoor plants outside and expected them to survive, they would quickly die. If I try to live without the Word of Life, I would quickly die.
I cannot with any measure of success be expected to live and thrive and bear fruit without the Word, the True Vine, the Living Water. When I am dry, that is where I am watered. When life is dark, that is where I find the Light. When I am weak, that is where I find strength. When I feel constrained, that is where I find freedom. When life is overwhelming, that is where I find peace.
For reflection:
- In what ways have you sometimes felt that you were trying to feed yourself with things that don’t lead to the type of growth or strength God intended? What was the result?
by Jennifer Dreyer
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