As a child, I was introduced to the blessing of the "green thumb" by my mom. She loves house plants and we have plenty. I remember specifically growing avocado plants from store bought avocados. We would dry, then float the seeds in a clear glass full of water until they sprouted roots. I'm sure she planted them after that, but the growing was always the most interesting part. I remember, too, the night my parents were very excited, grabbed the flashlight, and made my brother and I rush to the pool deck where they shined the light on our very first pineapple sucker bloom (they had planted the sucker from a pineapple our neighbors had hand carried from Hawaii), and we kept watch as the pineapple grew large enough to eat!I've been blessed to have a relatively green thumb myself. I enjoyed growing peppers, rosemary and grape tomatoes last summer (and eating them in my salad). I am currently growing some teddy bear sunflowers and my own avocado plant from a seed I bought to make guacamole :)
To be honest, though, this post is a bit overdue, because the real lessons for me came a few months ago. In early spring, my apartment complex groundskeepers drastically pruned the crepe myrtle trees that line the pool. It was such a pitiful sight. I remember learning about pruning from my parents as a child. And though it looks so wrong, I also remember the results from years of watching my parents care for their own trees in our front yard.
As I thought about the now pitiful, naked, stick-trees, and the avocado seed floating in water in my apartment window, seeminly lifeless, the Lord impressed a very valuable lesson on my heart.
There have been seasons in my life that have been ordinary and normal. There have been season that have been crazy busy with studying or moving or new jobs, or some combination of all. And there has been a new season as of late, that I have never experienced to this extent, called pruning.
I would qualify my life as a new Christian at age 14 through college as 'growing spiritually'. I would describe some points in there as pretty normal as well. There have been some moments of pruning, for sure. And even a few uprootings and replantings! But right here, right now, in this season, I very much feel like this picture.
The beauty of this picture is the fact that every thing this plant needs to sprout new shoots, grow new leaves, and bloom abundant flowers, is happening under the surface of the ground. In the roots. There is amazing life in the roots. And though the pruning leaves the tree looking vulnerable, fruitless, and even lifeless, it is anything but!
Honestly, I've felt like there is nothing happening at times in the past two years. I've felt fruitless, and sometimes even lifeless. I've been painfully pruned in some very big areas. However, it seems every time I start to get even a little down about where I am with the Lord, He gently reminds me of this picture. And of the life He is cultivating, enriching, and sustaining under the surface. SO THAT, in His perfect timing, there will be new shoots, fresh leaves, and abundant flowers...
'For I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus...And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you can determine what really matters and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.' Philippins 1:6,9-11
