What I Learned from the Plant World - Restoration

The following post is written as a contribution to a groupwrite project at http://middlezonemusings.com/. As requested: a link to the page that started it all.

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As I was browsing through pictures from my garden in an attempt to write my previous post, I came across a photo that just begged to have its own post.

Looks a little freaky, doesn't it? That used to be a squash plant. It had been flourishing in it's little starter pot. But squash are fragile plants, and in the process of transplanting it into the ground, it broke. The very base of it folded over and cracked in half.

In a couple of days, it was reduced to a few dry and dead shoots of what had once been a thriving plant.

But I left it, partly because I didn't have the heart to dig it up, and mostly just to see what would happen.

Over time, this little squash plant revived itself. Apparently there was just enough life left in the stem to pump water past the broken places and to the rest of the plant. Now, the plant has far outgrown the ones that remained in their safe little pots and is producing fruit.

Amazing, isn't it? What I didn't get a picture of is where the plant comes out of the ground. Underneath this lush foliage remains a twisted, dried up stem. I look at it and am amazed that such a dead and hopeless looking piece of plant is able to support the thick leaves and growing squash on top.

I can't help but remember God's grace to those who come to Him broken and without any hope of life. How much more does He restore His children who are faithful!

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. -1 Peter 5:10

These words were spoken to persecuted Christians, but I have seen God work similar miracles of restoration in lives of people from across the board. We are caught in sin, or life's harsh circumstances trip us up. Health is taken away, possessions are lost, families are torn apart, innocent people are subjected to brutal effects of someone else's sin.

Something happens, and everything we know and trust and find safety in is stripped away. Suddenly we are left alone, exposed, and raw. There is no hope, and our destruction seems like the only possible outcome.

Yet those who hold on, who do not give up, and who desperately cling to Him with even just the tiniest bit of hope remaining...to those He is faithful and will restore. To those who remain in Him, He remains in and produces a harvest (John 15). He brings life. Not just a life that is barely holding on, but a full and productive life that will bring Him glory.

Know what's cool about all that? Even after restoring His children to life and beauty, the scars remain. Those who have been brought back from a life of death and hopelessness still wear the evidence of the battles they faced. The wounds are healed. But the scars remain.

And they must remain. Because it is from these scars that new life grows.

A new harvest is produced.