So, I have a few plants around my back patio. I enjoy them, I know them, I care for them.
and then... my two year old: that boy!
I was peacefully sitting in my living room when I saw pillows flying from the deck (second floor) and onto the patio below, where my beloved plants are, those pillows are not fluffy! they are outdoor furniture pillows and they fell directly on one of my favorite succulents. My husband bought that one for my from the Milwaukee Domes during our last trip there. Everything that comes from Wisconsin I treasure, if it is a plant... even more! So I was afraid to even lift the pillow.
The sight was not pretty. My precious Crassula Rupestris (Kebab Succulent) had been crushed... there were leaves, little pieces of branches and dirt everywhere. A big part of the plant remained in the pot and attached to the roots but not intact. Some pieces were just gone. The whole plant suffered. I felt overwhelmed with sadness and even anger... it was a bigger reaction than you would expect for a little plant... and it's because I saw myself in that plant... I saw myself and friends and brothers and sisters in those leaves that were so violently snatched from the plant.... and yet the story doesn't end there...
As I picked up the pot and the broken pieces... I immediately
What once was a beautiful plant would all start to become different plants all of their own. This could only happen because of my love for them and because I know what to do. Some will struggle a bit longer than others, some will immediately start to grow roots and even the original plant will never look the same and was severely wounded. For each of those now separate plants somehow things will begin to be better... and then even blossom into perfect, healthy new life.
This wasn't my original plan for the plant. What happened wasn't my purpose for it or what I desired for it, and even though I knew I could do still do something about it, it still hurt. I still wish it hadn't gone through that. There will be discipline for the one who caused it, because it wasn't entirely unintentional... he knew exactly what he was doing. The plants might look at me and think I did this for this very purpose. I am so good with them that when they see themselves healthy and beautiful they might even think I caused them the initial pain so that it could lead to this. My plants will not ever understand this is something I never meant for them and I was never behind their crushing... but even when that wasn't my plan, I love them enough to still restore and redeem and I can turn something that could have destroyed them into something good. Yes, sometimes there's pruning and cleaning up that might be painful and I am behind that but, other things happen just because we live in sinful world... where even Jesus had to pray "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"... we are definitely not there yet! And still I trust the perfect Creator to heal and restore the pieces that are broken in all of our lives.
Prayer: Thank you Lord for being oh so gentle! for caring for us your children even more than we could ever care for plants... Thank you for your gentle hand when pruning... and for your mighty hand to do something beautiful even out of any and all unexpected events. You are above it all, you are able!
© Paloma K.
