Thursday, July 21, 2011

Live By Faith, Not By Sight

Winter Tree

There is a bush in my garden. Some people call it a Chinese Lantern bush, some people call it a… oh, dear, now I’ve forgotten! Anyway, the point is, I have had this bush in my garden for two years now, and each winter I have tried various measures to keep it from being ravaged by frost, but each winter my attempts have failed dismally…

I saw it as a failure on my part the first winter and fully expected to have no more Chinese Lantern bush (or whatever it’s called) in my garden. But lo and behold, it grew again, out of the ground! My initial excitement regarding this miracle resurrection, was slightly dampened at the reflection that the plant would only grow to the same height as last year and probably be mown down by the infamous Free(ze) State frost again.

Again I was pleasantly surprised… Not only did the bush produce beautiful yellow and pink flowers, it grew to twice the size it had been the previous year! Wow! What a bonus! I resolved right away to take better care of the bush so that it could grow bigger again next year! (As if I had had anything to do with the exponential growth that year…?)

Alack, alas! Despite my frantic (and fairly extreme) efforts, the poor bush succumbed once again to the ravages of Jack Frost. Reduced once again to spongy, lifeless twigs sticking out at all angles…

After the initial disappointment had settled, my brain began ticking over… Hmmmmm…. There was a pattern starting to emerge here… What if….

Suddenly, possibilities began to form in my brain… I remembered seeing huge bushes of this kind all over Bloemfontein and wondered how they had survived the sub-zero’s when mine had not? What had the gardeners done to preserve them? HAD the gardeners done anything to preserve them or was there something else going on here?

Was I paying too much attention to what was happening above ground, and ignoring what was happening below ground? Could it be that even though the branches were all killed off by the frost, the roots were still living, growing, thriving out of sight below the soil? That second year’s exponential growth had to have an explanation… Could that be it?

Now I wait with bated breath for Summer. And not only because I am sick and tired of having frozen toes and getting up when it’s still dark! I want to see how big my Chinese Lantern bush is going to grow this year! What are those roots going to push out in the new season? Instead of a sense of gloomy predictability, there is a breathless expectancy!

Then God tapped me on the shoulder and reminded me that my life is a lot like that bush too. There are times when I feel like there is no growth, no fruit, like I’m going backwards two steps for every step I take forward. I look around at the evergreens in their perennial splendour and feel naked and ashamed. But I forget to look down into the depths of my soul, into where nobody but God can see.

Down there God is growing something, the foundation, the source of the growth and fruit of the next season. He is establishing those roots deeper into His love, grace and power. The cost? Each Winter EVERYTHING above ground has to die. The reward? Greater growth, and more flowers in the following Summer!

And so the process continues until there is a 3m x 2m bush ablaze with colour, rich with foliage, delighting all who pass by and rest in its shade. But not because I protected its branches during Winter. Because God grew its roots during Winter.

The righteous shall live by faith, not by sight.

Shalom! ;o)

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