Delight. On a Tuesday.

As I write this, we here in the Westwood, MA area are currently in the middle of 11-out-of-14-days-of-rain. Easter has passed. My schedule is still full. The news holds yet more arguments, shootings, and pain. A girl could get pretty depressed, tbh.

And yet, today outside my office, I saw this plant. It is mostly dead, or it appears to be mostly dead. Yet there are a few small leaves and a few new branches growing. Out of the brown and the dull there emerges a green new shoot of life.

Now, if you know me, you know that I did not do anything to cause this plant to grow. I kill plants. Once, a co-coworker left her plant in my office while she went on vacation, and it began to die within hours, just knowing it was in my presence! Another time, I spent a year watering a plastic plant, proud of myself that it hadn’t died. Me & plants – it isn’t a productive partnership. So, this plant’s new growth has nothing to do with me.

Isn’t that how it is in the rest of the world as well? God is always providing green shoots of life, moments of delight, energy when we feel drained, and color when we feel drab. GOD is providing it. We are not responsible for the creation of life. All we are called is to notice it and embrace it and serve it.

How do I serve this new life that God is providing in this plant? If I knew plants, I’d do whatever fertilizing or pruning is required – sometimes God calls us to act. Since I am not a plant person, I can find and empower someone else to serve God here – sometimes God calls our whole community.

For today, however, I simply thank God. For new growth where it is unexpected, for color on a dreary day, for delight on a Tuesday afternoon.

Delighted,

Pastor Steph

PS—If you’re @ FBC WW and are a plant person, this is in the courtyard, near the link. Act as God calls!