Heliotropes and Suicide

Oh my. This garden of mine.
I am going to be honest and say I am vulnerably exciting about the garden.
What sanctuary it provides, what rest, what respite from the to-do list...and what wisdom.
In very little ways, God has been using the things I've learned about different flowers and gardening principles to mirror back to me principles about Himself, my relationship with Him, and His Kingdom.
This makes sense, Psalm 19 tells us that He reveals Himself through His creation.

And besides, we can learn a lot from plants. Just these 2 principles alone can help my life tremendously:

1- Seek out the sun -Son- (and move towards it at all cost)

Do you know what the word Heliotrope means? It's from the term Heliotropium, a genus of flower. These flowers are known for their movement in response to the sun.

Heliotrope has also been called “turnsole,” after its tendency to turn its flowers and leaves toward the sun over the course of each day. And at night it readjusts itself to face eastward, to be ready for sunrise. That tendency is at the root of the name heliotrope, too. It means to move with the sun.

(Source)

Here is a picture from my garden of just that same thing.

This plant amazes me. Not only does it leave it's comfortable, secure position but it stretches itself out FEET away from it's root. The other day I came outside to see a 8-9 foot piece sustained in midair. I just kept staring at it, wondering what it was reaching for and how it managed to hold itself up suspended.

 Another example of seeking out the sun and life is this plant, right here.

These flowers are comfortable seeking out life anywhere. They will just pop up wherever they can be sustained. It may look uncomfortable, they may have to share space with a big, bushy, green tree, but they thrive.

2-Cut it off (Or it will drain unnecessary life from the plant)

Basic gardening principle (that I didn't know before), whatever is dying, cut it off. When I asked my friend Emily why we do this she responded, "so the plant isn't sending all it's nutrients and energy to a part of it that will never grow or bear fruit". Bah! Of course! How brilliant this concept is. How much of my time and energy do I put into things that don't matter or will never produce the life that God asks me to produce.

Most plants need us to do this for them, to run around with scissors and cut off all the dead things. It helps them grow faster, right? Jesus, of course, is great at this. But I'm convinced we should be able to do it for ourselves, too. Consider it self-suicide. Ha! And do you know what flower seems to be the best at this? While all other plants are wasting their energy pumping out nutrients to the dead heads I have forgotten to pluck, Wisteria does it itself. It seems that the wisteria bush behind my grill that is frequently exposed to hot, summer grill-outs kills parts of itself that have been damaged by my fun. It doesn't wait for me to come along and clip it.

It realizes that life is precious, moments are ticking, and if a thing is dying...it's time to go.
(Ok, so maybe it doesn't actually realize all of that.)

Jesus, help me learn to cut off the stuff that drains energy you have reserved for something else. Teach me to go out on a limb, to seek you out at all cost, to be comfortable in the uncomfortable, and to daily be seeking Your face.

Also, anyone taken a notice to these things called TREES?! They are pretty incredible, too.....

xoxo,

mp