photo cred. Michael LaRosa on Unsplash

Springtime reminds me there is always hope, even during a pandemic with COVID-19.  At the end of winter, most trees, flowers, and bushes look dead, even where i live in Florida. Leaves turn brown, dry out, and fall off. Plants and trees become dormant. This happened the Crepe Myrtle trees in the front yard of our previous home. By the end of winter, there were no more leaves on them. They appeard lifeless and barren–dead. But ife was still in them. In the spring, they come back to life like new. If I prunedthem, they came back even more beautiful than the year before. I always had hope for those trees!

In my back yard I had flowering bushes that were severely damaged one year by sub-freezing temperatures. Sadness filled my heart when I looked out my kitchen window and only saw lifeless sticks instead of beautiful flowers. I was sure there was no hope for those plants. Should I give up on them? Dig them up and plant something else in their place?

A vague thought occured to me: maybe I shouldn’t give up on my plants too quickly? Maybe I could prune them back, like my crepe myrtle trees and wait …  not make judgements on how things looked at the moment, but hold off and see what would happen in the spring.

Unexpected

What could it hurt if I cut them to the ground in an attempt to save them? Would I ruin them? And if they grew healthy again, I would save myself a lot of work and money by not needing to buy more plants to replace the dead ones. Uncertain of the outcome, I decided to take a chance and prune them too. Then the difficult part; the waiting and not knowing what would happen.

Guess what happened? About two months later, small signs of life began to appear. Little green sprouts popped out here and there all over the the plants. Shocked and thrilled, I couldn’t believe my eyes. And yes, as the days passed and I continued to wait, more and more greenery appeared until every bush was fully covered with bright green leaves. The plants transformed before my very eyes. I never expected all that new life. This is a photo of those bushes I thought were hopeless.

photo cred. Dena Yohe

Nature’s Example

Then the thought dawned on me . . . this is an analogy for our children’s lives.

God has given us a visual example in nature to remind us of the promise of new life and the hope of re-birth.

What looks dead to our human eyes isn’t dead to God.

He sees with eternal, heavenly eyes . . .  when things look barren and lifeless there could still be a new beginning. A fresh start.

In a season of pruning and the dark of winter, we may give up and lose hope. But perspective makes the difference. What we see today is just that…today.

Mom, dad, there is always hope.

Our God is the God of hope.

Our God is omniscient. He has knowledge we don’t have.

Our God is omnipotent. He has power we don’t have.

When He does a work of pruning in someone’s life, He knows what He’s doing. He’s the skilled Master Gardener.

Our job is to pray and wait and put our hope in Him.

We do all we can, them we have to surrender. Let go. Release our tight grip. Give them back to the One who gave them to us in the first place.

We need to trust God to work where we cannot. And this is hard. Oh, more than that…excrutiating because we are given no guarantees of new life growing in them. Our children get to choose how they will respond, but we can know for certain that God will give them every opportunity because of His expansive love.

Our God is also long-suffering. He gives second, third, fourth – endless chances.

Even a pandemic can’t stop His handiwork.

photo cred. Francesco Gallarotti un unsplash

Hold on, weary parent. Any day you could see signs of life. If you do, be grateful for every little thing you notice. And be patient. Most of us were a long work in process, right? We didn’t change all at once or become who we are today overnight, at least I didn’t. Progress was slow. Gradual. Three steps forward, two steps back.

Rejoice and give thanks for every small step. We learn to crawl before we learn to walk and run. Children fall many times before they’re steady on their feet. It’s the same with our sons and daughters.

Prayer: Master Gardener, I’m going to pray a scary prayer today. Please do whatever it takes to save my child. Help me trust Your pruning work in their life. Teach my heart the lesson of spring. Remind me You are at work when I see no evidence. Help me hold on to faith in what You can do. Thank you for the promise of spring, of new life, and the hope of re-birth.

Encouragement from the Bible:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions . . .  (Eph. 2:4-5).

. . . But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently  (Rom. 8:24).

Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God . . . (Ps. 42:5a).

Recommended Resource: I Am Second  Watch, read and connect with a community of people who have discovered a different way of living. Experience real stories of real people who tried to curate a perfect narrative but instead found true peace in authentic identity. When they were lonely and overwhelmed, radical love stepped into that raw place and offered hope.