This beauty in the picture is quite deceiving. It is hard to look at something that is thriving and green and flowering and really see what had become of it. This beautiful varigated lantana bush had become nothing more than an ugly brown twiggy stump that was sticking out of the corner of a flower bed. Rob and I moved to this house a year ago. The flower beds had become terribly overgrown after the previous owner passed away. The sad part was that 40 years of beautifully cultivated flowers and plants had become buried and covered up by overgrown ugliness. One Saturday afternoon about 2 months ago I began to dig in and focus on uncovering and saving what I could in the beds. That is when I encountered a stump. Honestly, I almost yanked it up by the root. The only thing that kept me from totally destroying it was that it had one tiny green leaf peeking out at the base. When I saw the leaf, I saw a glimmer of hope for the stump. Fortunately I have grown up around plants and gardens and knew that this stump had to have been a bush, due to the size of it. The leaf also looked incredibly familiar. So, I decided that the right thing to do would be to coddle and protect it and water it and feed it, in order to uncover whatever loveliness might lie beneath the ugliness.
So, I started with trimming part of the stump that was obviously burnt. I clipped off the unhealthiest parts and left what I thought would be the most viable. Every day, I've watered the stump, until finally, a few more green leaves started peeking out...then another, and then another. I was so excited! We were getting somewhere! I finally had enough leaves on it that I could do some further "testing" of the future "fruit" and not destroy it totally. So, I plucked off a leaf, crumpled it and smashed it between my fingers and then gave it a deep sniff....just what I thought! I had lantana on my hands. I knew down deep what was really under that stump, but I had to be sure. I had been around enough lantana over the years to know what fragrance it "should" give off when put to the test. I knew that lantana was really a beautiful plant and not an ugly stump. I also knew that not only would there be a beautiful lantana bush in my garden, but that just its presence would attract other things to my garden, like beautiful butterflies and some great pollenating bumble bees. I knew that this would bring an overall benefit to the rest of the garden and not just to that one plant.
At any rate, as you can see from the picture, all of those months of deadness and ugliness and pruning paid off. The beauty underneath is nothing that I could have produced on my own...it was only because of the pruning and nurturing that had to be done to the plant. It had to become nothing, only to become bigger, better and more beautiful than ever.
This beautiful plant is only likened to the pruning that the Lord has to do the stumps of our lives. We become burnt, ugly and nothing more than a stump, but God looks beyond the ugliness. He can see that one little green leaf peeking out and He can also see the finished product that is on the other side. My lantana plant didn't have a choice as to whether I would prune it or not. It could do nothing more than sit there, dormant, stagnant and ugly. It was totally reliant on me, the vinedresser, to come and rescue it, love it, see beyond its ugliness and cultivate its beauty.
I am thankful for the reminders that the Lord provides to me, even in something as simple as going out this morning to water flowers. He is constantly giving me life lessons and life reminders through His word. I am thankful for His reminder of the words in John 15 today. I pray that they will be as meaningful to you today as they were to me. He always has perfect timing and He always provides gentle reminders right when I need them. I just have to resign and allow Him to continue to prune me so that I can bring forth the best fruit in my life and that I can be an example to others. Thank you Lord for your lessons! I'll leave you with the words that He gives us in John 15 about he Vinedresser....
John 15 (NKJV)
The True Vine
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;[a] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will[b] ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Blessings to you on this Lord's day,
