PINIMAGEWell, Vacation Bible School is over and I’m finally getting my bearings once again after a week of what felt like a never-ending relay race. I was out of the bed each morning. Running. Running. Running. And then I fell back into bed each night. Mind you, it began well before last Monday, as there were props to make and scripts to type, etc. What a wonderful whirlwind. God blew us away with His faithfulness in it all!
Yesterday I sat down at my desk and took a few minutes to straighten up. I tossed some papers, took coffee cups to the sink, put some pens in the top drawer and then that’s when I spotted it!
PINIMAGEI looked over on my credenza and saw my little pretty potted plant (a Bacopa ‘Snowtopia’ like the one pictured here) dried up like a crunchy Brillo Pad. Oh My Goodness! This once cute little flowering plant was all but dead. I rushed it to the bathroom sink and let water from the faucet run over it fearing it might be too late.
“How could I let this happen?”
“Why wasn’t I paying more attention? “
“Hadn’t I just watered you a few days ago?”
“Things were going so well!”
I should mention here that this pretty little flowering plant was a gift to me from Mark and my kids on my birthday in April. I loved the dainty little flowers that brightened up my office. The pot is ceramic and painted in bold colors. I loved everything about it. I decided immediately that I’d put it in my office where I could enjoy it most.
I gotta be honest, things started out rough with my new little plant early on. My cats fancied eating the flowers off of it. They only seemed to start trouble when I was in my office working. They’d sit quietly sleeping as usual and as the day dragged on, if they hankered for a little snack, they would just mosey over to my plant and start biting at its leaves.
I would shoo them away over and over before heading to the pantry and getting them some cat treats. Well, as you can imagine, they began to figure out that the sooner they nibbled on the plant, the sooner the pantry door would open. Needless to say, this took a toll on my new little plant friend over time.Each day I fought the cats away and certain trouble was averted. Eventually they stopped nibbling but not without a fight.
Now I sit here looking at a lifeless plant and asking the “what ifs”.
.jpg)
I’m also thinking about how this plant is such a good example of the Christian life of the believer.
Perhaps you started out a vibrant thriving plant. You had fruit budding from your leaves and you felt very much alive. Then maybe the attacks began. Familiar predators began to nip at your leaves (maybe that “sin that so easily besets you,” or even an area in your heart you’ve not surrendered to God – anger, guilt, fear, resentment…). It attacks and threatens to overtake you….to gobble you up.
You fought for a while. Maybe even experienced some victories against your attackers. You’ve cried out to God and seen His provision and protection against the spiritual assailants in your story. But as things have quieted down and the battle seems under control, you begin to neglect the Water of the Word. You go days without it and you’re beginning to feel dry and brittle.
Indicators of drying up:
- No joy and abundance
- Strained relationships
- A negative outlook and a critical heart
- No fruit
Have you been thirsty?
It’s not too late to return to the Source and allow God’s Living Water restore your green leaves. Allow Him to flow into your life as you read His Word and spend time being tended to by His matchless care. Before you know it the water begins to flow out of you and into the lives of others as new buds begin to form.
There is mystery in a flowering plant. Watching flowers and green leaves grow out of dark soil always amazes me. But what isn’t a mystery is how to make a plant grow. You’ve got to water it.
It’s no mystery, if you want a plant to grow, you’ve got to water it.
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14
Christian friend:
Are you wondering why you are not experiencing joy and abundance in your life?
Are you feeling dry and weary?
Although it’s a simple reminder, maybe it’s time you got back under the flow of God’s abundant life-giving water and committed to regular watering.
I find at times that I’m feeling a little brittle, I feel dry and weary in my heart. It’s sometimes how I know I’m still alive. But time with God renews my strength and gives me life in abundance. Today you can commit to do the same.
- “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” Isaiah 44:3
- And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.” Revelation 21:6
- They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. Psalm 36:8
- “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isaiah 55:1
- “And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.” Isaiah 58:11
I trust one of these verses will speak to your specific need today.
…Then there’s the topic of artificial plants. That’s a whole other story and maybe a blog post for another day.
Oh, and about my birthday plant…shhh, I haven’t exactly told Mark, let’s just keep that between us.
