I am not a master gardener. I am not a master anything, but maybe a master screw up when left to my own devices. That is not meant to be an insult to myself as some may think. That is an observation of the years of having made epic mistakes. Without Jesus I am nothing. In fact, I surely would not have lived this long had Jesus not come and saved my sorry life at 19 years old. But back to gardening…
When I was younger I tried to keep plants alive but even the easiest plants I killed, because my mind was on other things. I forgot to water, over watered, did not give the right amount of sunlight, or just all together forgot about them. In the past few years I have begun to find a great delight in gardening and plant care.
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant will also be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” (John 12:24-26)
When propagating succulents, a leaf is removed or cut from the main plant and placed on the soil. Sometimes it falls on its own. I have been amazed to watch these little plants grow from the fallen leaves.
A single leaf can grow a single, or often multiple plants. Therefore, a single plant that loses its leaves can have many grow from it when multiplied. That of course depends upon soil and care as well as original cutting. Often, a new plant will even grow from the very place that the leaf was removed.
Dying isn’t usually pleasant, but often painful. We can tend to try to control circumstances around our lives and those who we care for to avoid that pain. When we allow God, the master gardener, to do what only he can do, he will bring new life where it looked like disaster.
God is a multiplier. He shows us this over and over in his word. He did it first with Adam and Eve. He did it for Abraham. He did it for those sent to take care of the prophets. He did it in turning the water to wine. He did it with feeding the thousands. His greatest multiplication was through the death and resurrection of Jesus. He continues to this day to multiply.
God also prunes. When I first started pruning my plants it was scary, because I thought I had probably destroyed them. Then I saw that as new growth came, more multiplication, more blooms, more fruit. It continues to amaze and fascinate me when I see the connections to what the Lord does with us.
So I had this lovely succulent that was getting tall, so I cut it down and removed some leaves. Because I am not the master gardener, I lost one of the cut plants due to rot, common to succulents. I wasn’t sure if my original intentions were going to pan out. Then all the leaves that I had propagated multiplied. Each of them produced more seedlings than I imagined. The plant that I lost was not a disaster after all. Instead it served to give me a great many little ones that will grow and thrive.
So, every area of our lives, hopefully all of it, when we let it go, God multiply. New life will come. We lay down our lives, sometimes a piece at a time, so this new growth can appear. That growth will be in the form of others being touched or brought into the kingdom, as well as other areas of fruitfulness in our own lives. However it comes, it will surely come. God wastes nothing. Praise God he is also the master recycler. He recycles every lost life that will come to him and dare trust their hearts. He is so good. We don’t have to understand it all. He will give us what we need to understand when we need it.
As the world grows darker, Jesus is drawing us, inviting us to deeper places in him to come, trust, take up our cross and lay it down. This is new to many believers in America, as well as other places in the world, but God is faithful. We can and must trust him to complete that which he began (Phil.1:6).
Melicia Evans 