Forget the Teapot! I'm a Plant!

I just posted this on facebook and thought about how even though I wrote it about being a christian, it can also well apply to those of us trying to lose weight. We need good fuel for our bodies to help in the weight loss process, plenty of water to wash away the bad stuff we get from the environment as well as nurture our cells at optimum levels, support to keep the battle going and cheering on one another. We need knowledge to know what is best for us to do to lose that weight, and we can only achieve this if we are diligent and surround ourselves with likeminded people who also are working towards the same goals :)

I decided to try something different this year. I’m not a real big fan of grocery store produce. Sure those pretty red, orange or yellow orbs look so dazzling hanging out in their misting baths. They are so enticing, but hey, looks are deceiving sometimes. There’s nothing quite like a mouthful of nothingness, or better yet bitter! Hey! Apples are supposed to be sweet right? And strawberries are supposed to be succulent! Oh yeah! So with yet another year of teasing and disappointment out before me, I decided I’m going to be a little farmer this year and grow some of my own goodies. I started tomatoes. I never thought I’d get excited over watching a tomato grow, but yup, I surely have, and the first one turned red today! I’m a proud mamma! Next I planted cantaloupe, mmmmmmmm, cantaloupe! I couldn’t stop there though, and so I also planted variegated bell peppers and cucumbers. Hey, I even tried a few flowers! I realized something today as I stood outside admiring them. We’re a lot more like plants than we think!




What? How is that even possible? Think about it. Plants need a secret place, protected from predators, where they can begin to grow and put forth their first delicate shoots. I started my little babies off in a seed tray, and with great hope talked to them about how much I eagerly awaited seeing their first peeping green and really looked forward to all the yummy goodness they would provide me. We as humans need this spiritually as well. There comes a point in any pre-Christians life where the darkness pervades their life, and a harden shell has encased their hearts. They cry out to God, thus beginning their seedling cycle, allowing their own tender shoots to break free of the shell. Through prayer and support of their church (the seed tray), they begin to grow and sprout. I know I got excited when I saw the first hints there was life under that soil, and I still stand in wonder over a fully grown plant laden with its fruits. Life as we know it would not be possible without the seed trays. We couldn’t even sprout our leaves and anchor our roots.



Once the seedlings were strong enough, I transferred them into large pots, putting several in together. Once again, it dawned on me, that’s a whole lot like we are! As baby Christians, we need the support of other Christians to teach us. God plants everything in our hearts, but unless He somehow zaps us, there is no way we can possibly know everything there is to know about what we need to know to grow strong and know more of what we need to know. Yeah! This is our learning whom it is we are in Christ period as we stretch our roots and reach for the sky with like-minded new family. Eventually, I will transfer them into larger pots with few plants in each, giving them space to grow and thrive and begin to produce their own fruit. Once again, that’s much like we are as toddler Christians. We begin to learn our place in this life and what we can do for our Lord and home church and lives amongst non-believers. As we grow and become stronger in Christ, our circle widens, our needs broaden and we begin to show the first buds of our future fruits. These I believe are what dreams God has planted in our hearts.



It goes beyond that though, if you think about it. What does every plant with a glimmer of hope need to survive? Good soil with a solid foundation, right? Well, we as Christians do, too. I liken that to our churches and church family, right along with what we surround ourselves with outside of church. If the soil is poor and the foundation faulty, the plant will never thrive, it will shrivel up and die, and that unfortunately is pretty much the same for anyone. Plants also need the sun. Oh that beautiful, warm sun that shines down and gives them energy! Yep, we need our Son, too, who gives us redemption and prevents us from withering under the burden of our own sin! He renews and strengthens us much like the sun does my future yummy goodness! But there’s more, oh yeah! Plants need to be watered and fed. What? Fed? Yep, they need food to provide bigger, better, healthier fruits and vegetables, and you betchya boots that that is exactly like us! We need the water of the Holy Spirit to heal us, cleanse us, refresh us, guide us and heal us. Without this water, we would have no direction. We wouldn’t know which way was forward or backward, or you know the saying, we wouldn’t know our behineys from our elbows. It’s because of this ‘water’ that we know what to do in life, how to behave (you know when you should or shouldn’t be doing something, now don’t you? That’s because the good ol’ friendly Holy Ghost is niggling ya! And telling you no! No! NOOOOOOOOOO! or YES YES! HIGH FIVE OH YEAH!). And what is the food, you might wonder? That’s the word, God’s word, the living word, that feeds our bodies, our souls and allows our spirits to grow. But the word is also our insect repellant and protection from all pestilences in life. Put this all together and you find God’s loving grace, because it is He who brought you here, and it is He who gave you this moment in your life to sprout and grow and strengthen and grow in wisdom and put forth good fruit, and yes, even to die. But in that good fruit lie many seeds of hope, just like within my fruits and vegetable lie many futures of promising good fruits and vegetables to edify my body, and from our lives and deaths, these seeds will live on to grow and prosper in someone else’s little patch.