People Are like Plants

Plants are like humans

This morning I was staring at my plants sitting on the window pane, taking in the sunlight as it beamed through the window. I saw my rosemary plant standing strong with no help at all. Then, my eyes darted to my Basil. This basil needed some assist a few weeks ago. It was growing tall, but then started to lean. I decided before it was going to fall completely to get some skewer sticks to assist the basil in staying upright. Before I placed the stakes into the soil I “pruned” and spoke life to my plant. I know it sounds silly, but there is something about speaking out loud what you are believing for that allows dead things to come back to life. Pruning the plant takes some time. Time is taken to pull out the tiny bits of dried dead leaves or stems and sometimes, pushing the roots down deeper or adding a little more soil and water to the roots so they may be firmly placed. Adding some extra water and love to basil I placed it back into the window believing for it to come back to life. Before it had started wilting I had used quite a bit of the basil leaves for a dish I was making for dinner, spaghetti sauce, as well as some fresh mozzarella, tomato, and balsamic. Can I get an Amen?! YUm….now I’m hungry….anyway….It made me think about how much plants are similar to people.

As we grow in this life we all need moments where we are used for a great purpose, maybe through work, ministry, a family, or a friend. When basil leaves, or any leaves, are used it signals new growth to start in a plant. This means as the plant is used new growth is stimulated to grow new leaves, just as when humans allow themselves to be used we choose to grow in maturity, spiritually, and/or physically etc. When we are used for others this can have a lot of growth lessons within us, but this does need to be balanced.

When too many leaves are taken off the main stem in a short time frame the growth may get  stunted or the plant may get so depleted that it just dies. You can actually prune a plant too much and this prevents growth in the way that it was designed. During times of great adversity or extra demands on us, we as humans, and plants need extra tender loving care. This may encompass asking people for help, changing our schedule to allow for rest, finding time to discover a deeper passion, and leaning on something or someone for a time. I have found personally that the moments we least want help are the moments it is most pertinent to our growth to allow someone else to come in add extra soil, make sure we are planted deep, watered, put into the light,  and spoken over with words of life to help lift and carry a burden too heavy to carry alone. We need each other just like some plants need other plants to fertilize new growth.

I don’t know why but speaking to my plants works for me. The bible says when we refresh others we too are refreshed. I have found this to be completely true when we are giving out of an area of strength. But if we are not careful and get too depleted without reserve we will find ourselves burnt out and dried up like the falling leaves off my plant. I’ve had plants like my basil that looked like they were dead and would never reproduce again but I brought it back to life. When we believe in people and see the glimmer of life that sometimes get’s buried deep down, when all the outside looks dead, but we still believe….we can reignite the life to grow up to grow and grow up to produce more leaves than it did before it “died”. I don’t throw away and give up on things, plants, or people easily. I try my darndest to cultivate what little may be left because I know how it feels to be left, thrown aside, and looked as dead, or not good enough. I pray for God to give me eyes to see people like he does, through the eyes of love. What happens when someone sits around not being used or pruned? They die.

My cilantro plant is another good example, it hasn’t been doing much of anything. It has sat like a sad little plant in the window. Truthfully I was scared to even take one piece off because I didn’t want it to die. I didn’t know if it was strong enough to take the prune of just one piece. I was confused why this cilantro plant is sitting right next to my basil but is not really producing much of anything. It has the same soil, same water, same sun, but yet - it’s just not producing. But….why?

Another light bulb went off in my head when I looked at this plant and I almost started crying… yes over some cilatranto. I don’t know God is working deep right now...ok, so here it goes. Cilantro is like many of us. We sit in church, at work, or anywhere just getting through the day slowly dying for no use, no purpose beyond sitting in the sill soaking up sun and water.I decided even though I was scared it would die to take just 2 pieces off my cilantro and throw it in my guacamole. I made guac twice in the last week and the cilantro still sat there looking the same after using a few pieces, no new growth showing, looking more dead. I stuck some sticks in there next to the piece that was trying to hang on. I took away the tangled up pieces of dead root and tried to uncover some growth somewhere deep. I added some more soil on top and pushed the roots down deep with my finger getting dirt on me. Now it had support and some new love.  Hmmmm…. I heard God say something to me in this moment….how many times have I seen someone falling and in dire need of help, but I didn’t want to help because  it wasn't convenient , and I would get my hands dirty? Ouch!! I’ve been totally guilty of this at times. I stood there staring at my cilantro with tears in my eyes. It sounds ridiculous now writing this into words but I know God wants me to share this because right now, because my cilantro is standing tall. It’s small and no where near the size of the growth of the basil but it’s still alive!

When someone takes a chance on us or we take a chance on someone else who is going through a season of slow growth or needing help it’s amazing to watch how God will take someone who others passed off and renew their faith to be stronger than it ever was. These plants have taught me many things the past few weeks and I love when God shows up in our everyday life to show us lessons beyond just words on a page. Actually putting those words into work, working out our faith, in plants, and in people allows our faith to grow.The cilantro grew little by little by giving it a little task of just giving me 2 leaves, then 3 leaves, then 3 more...etc. I hope this gets across as powerful as it was for me, lets spread love by watering, adding soil, bringing light everywhere we go, because in the end I believe we are a lot like plants, needing more than to just sit in a window sill.