I have a friend in Jamaica and a few years ago she shared that she loves to see the colors of the trees in Fall. While she works closely with plants in Jamaica, the trees don’t turn the colors that they do in the US.
While we’ve been having some fantastic fall foliage, I remembered to take some pictures from my favorite park for her – the water from the lake glimmering with the changing hues of the leaves behind it.
A little while after, I got home to my own backyard and noticed that my neighbor’s tree had fully shed it’s leaves for the season – I snapped a picture and sent it to her with the comment, ‘life is slowly going to rest for the winter’. Her response came back ‘what a sad tree’.
Her response made me smile. You see, while it looks sad now, I know that this is simply part of the process. After experiencing nearly 30 cycles of fall/winter/spring, I know that when Spring comes next year, I will have glorious blooms and then leaves and even mulberry fruit from this tree.
This, is simply part of the process.
Sounds similar to life, right?
Not long after that conversation, I noticed a beautiful orchid on my window. My church nephew had surprised me and left it on my doorstep for my birthday with a sweet card.
I sent him a picture to update him on how beautifully the orchid was doing and thanked him again for thinking of me.
He was pleasantly surprised and shared that his orchid hadn’t fared so well, sharing a picture.
The irony is, he had given my daughter an orchid some years prior and I was ready to give it to my mom for her to care for and my daughter flat out refused. She said I couldn’t give away her gift. I was forced to learn how to care for orchids – and since then, I’ve managed to keep many of them alive for years at a time, and gaining many lessons along the way.
I gave him some suggestions on some things he should do – and counseled, even when the blooms have all fallen off, you have to keep watering. When it looks as if nothing is happening, you have to keep watering. As long as there are green leaves on the plant, you have to keep watering, even if it appears nothing is happening. Orchids are both beautiful and resilient.
Those two separate conversations felt like mini sermons were preached to me.
We walk through seasons where things change, leaves fall off and things look dead. However, the Master of Creation knows they are seasons that we must walk through to gain the beauty of Spring and new birth.
And… even when nothing seems to be happening. You have watered to the best of your ability, and, instead of blooming, the blooms still fall off. It’s not time to throw out the plant, it’s time to reassess and learn what needs to be done differently. And, if you know you have followed the instructions, you simply keep following and wait for the orchid to grow its new stem that will put forth its new blooms.
This was one of the hardest faith lessons as I cared for the very first orchid, but now, my window sill has about four orchids that have survived and thrived over the years.
Dear Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that there are lessons of your love every where we look. Thank you for this change in season. Thank you for the rest that both us and the land will get. We look forward to a beautiful awakening when Spring arrives.