A Tender Plant

Today is Administrative Professional’s Day.  I arrived this morning and found this plant on my desk. 

There’s something you should know about me.  You know how some people have a green thumb?  Well, my thumb is not green.  Some people say that they have a black thumb.  Well, mine is not even black.  My thumb is red.  If you look on a color wheel, red is opposite from green and I think I would be the polar opposite of having a green thumb.  I have several plants in my office that I inherited from the previous tenant.  I struggle to keep them looking ‘o.k.’  I forget to water them a lot of the time and there have been several times that I’ve had to discard a scary amount of brown leaves.  The part that’s really bad is that our manager has names for these plants.  I’m really trying, but I fear that they all will die before their time.

So, back to my gift this morning.  My first thought was, “Oh no!  Here’s another plant that I’ll have to keep alive.”  I know that my first thought should have been “oh how sweet of someone to think of me on this day”, but as you know, I’m a realist.  I tell it like I see it.  That’s when a second thought came to mind.

“He shall grow up before him as a tender plant”  (taken from Isaiah 53:2)

Look at these tiny little buds.  

Their livelihood is now in my hands.  They could have been purchased by someone who would really take care of them and love them and who would remember to water them.  But, they were given to me.  It’s my job to take care of these little baby roses.  My mind fills with dread as I consider the babysitting that will be required to keep these pretty little babies alive.  And then, I think of a way out.

I could give the rosebush away.  My mother-in-law loves flowers and bushes and she does really well with them.  Her yard is always beautifully manicured with lots of bushes and flowers.  This is what I should do.  I should just let her have them and every time I go to her house I can say, “Oh what pretty roses. Someone must have thought a lot of you to give you such a pretty bush.”  But, that doesn’t seem right either.

God saw Jesus as a tender plant.  He was not accustomed to the things that He would have to endure here on Earth.  He was accustomed to Heaven.  Can you imagine going from Heaven to Earth?  There were times that He went without water.  There were times that He went without food.  There were times that people did not treat Him right.  Just like that tender plant coming out of the nice cool soil and out into the bright (sometimes scarily bright when there’s no water) sunlight and growing and depending on others for sustenance, Jesus gave himself over to the care of others. 

If God saw Jesus as a tender plant, maybe he sees us that way too.  Aren’t you thankful that He is the One Who created plant life. What if He did not care to ‘mess’ with plants?  What if He forgot to feed us or water us?  Where would we be today? 

My new plant doesn’t decide on accepting my care.  It doesn’t have the ability to say, “no water today, I’m feeling pretty full from yesterday”.  Unfortunately, we do have the ability to say no to God.  Alot of us say 'no' to His provisions every day by skipping our Bible reading and prayer time with Him.

He has provided and will continue to provide everything that we need.  There is an eternal well of water that we can drink from that is always available.  Will you drink today?

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14