He Never Gives Up

A couple of years ago my piano teacher gave me a beautiful little plant (whose name I can never remember) for my birthday. It had shiny green leaves and the most beautiful orange flowers I’ve ever seen – clusters of little tiny blooms. Not possessing a green thumb, I don’t usually do very well with plants. I always joke that if you want to get rid of a plant just give it to me and I will manage to put it out of its misery quite rapidly. I have the best of intentions mind you. I love flowers and try again and again to grow them. The only ones I’ve had real success with are African Violets; for some reason those sweet little flowers just seem to like me. I think it has a great deal to do with where they live. They sit in a neat little row on the window sill above my kitchen sink.

Imagine my surprise when this new little plant flourished. In fact, it grew so quickly I soon had to put it in a bigger pot. It became a sort of joke that I, the notorious plant murderer, had a plant that looked like it was going to grow into a literal tree. It regularly displayed a beautiful bouquet of those orange flowers. I was delighted with this little (well actually not so little any more) plant.

One day I noticed that it was dropping leaves. I hoped it was just a temporary thing and kept a careful eye on it. Day after day the leaves continued to fall and then the stems began turning black. I tried trimming it back thinking that might help. It didn’t. The plant continued to lose ground until eventually I was left with one sad looking little stem growing in this huge pot. It did have a flower on it so I decided that I would let it hang around as long as the flower bloomed, but once it was dead I would just throw what was left of my once flourishing plant away.

That flower lasted for quite a while and just about the time it began to fade I noticed new growth at the base of that solitary stem. I decided to give it some more time and sure enough that tiny bit of growth began to push its way up. As the weeks passed more and more healthy life began to fill in the empty places. It is now nearly as big as it was before the leaves began to fall, and I am waiting for those delicate little orange flowers to make an appearance.

I sat looking at that plant the other day and thought how much the life of that plant is like my own. There was a point in my Christian life where I was flourishing, but over time I began to go my own way. There was no new growth and what was left was beginning to die. My life looked a lot like that one sad little stem – ready for the trash pile.

However, I have a heavenly Father who never gives up on me – or anyone else. He loves me through the difficult times, the times when I choose to go my own way. He has a plan for my life and He is committed to seeing it through. More than once I have had to humbly confess my sin and run back into His arms that are always reaching out for me. There I find forgiveness and unconditional love. We begin again this process of growing into the image of Christ.

Father – I am so thankful that you have never given up on me. Please give me grace and strength to grow into the woman You intended me to be.

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 (NAS)

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