My mom gifted me with a ‘chain of hearts’ plant a couple years ago, in a rustic little white pot with a small chip on the rim and a wire heart shape for the pant to grow and wrap itself around, emerging out of the soil. Weekly I would water the plant, but it never really grew more than a few chains which I clipped onto the wire heart, as there wasn’t enough growth for it to hold on its own. I placed it in my kitchen, close to the sink and a window, so that it could receive enough light and air. During the complete level 5 lockdown we were placed under in March 2020, I decided to place this little white pot on our outside table, as we were spending so much more time there. The little buds grew a little more, with new ones peeping out of the soil. I carried on watering it. It eventually reached a ceiling and did not bloom any further.
Then one day the little white pot got knocked over and cracked and broke in half. It was beyond repair, and so I decided to re-pot the plant into a beautiful pot a friend had gifted me with. It was slightly bigger, a beautiful turquoise colour with white detail and I was thrilled to be able to use it for something new. I transferred my plant and also topped the pot up to near the rim with compost. I also decided to place it back inside, in my kitchen, in it’s old spot. I water it weekly, and it is thriving! There are new green shoots every week, and I get to carefully wind them around each other, along the heart-shaped wire, and for the first time since I received it, the wire is completely covered in ‘chains of hearts’ green-ness and life!
As I took a moment to enjoy this budding little turquoise pot this week, I was remined by the Holy Spirit that life is rather similar to this little plant. Beautiful opportunities come along, with potential, and a future in sight. Sometimes the context, or community or space that these opportunities are outworked in is just not right, or not big enough for them to come to fruition in. Sometimes the conditions or emotional climate or mental capacity for the opportunity is not developed, and so we struggle, and survive and strive to just grow or force the opportunity to come to be. Perhaps we then decide to place ourselves in a different mindset or approach life with a different perspective, but because the ‘pot’ we are planted in is too small, we start to bloom, but only grow and flourish to a limit before going nowhere again. And then we fall apart and crack and break, and our entire comfort zone, safety, security and everything we know breaks away, and we are faced with a choice. Either we stay in the broken space we find ourselves in or we choose to re-plant ourselves into a new, also beautiful ‘pot’, whether that looks like a new community, or new suburb, new home, new country, or just removing toxic people from our lives, establishing and enforcing boundaries, making those life-changing decisions, or looking at things from a new perspective. It can be totally up-rooting, painful, devastating, disappointing, or it can be less intense as most of the original ‘soil’ goes with us into the new ‘pot’. But the re-planting is worth it. And after a few weeks or months or years, the new buds of life and future and hope and plans and opportunities start to peep through the soil of our new space and place, and we begin to settle and take root and grow and flourish and blossom and bloom. AND we can get back to the spot in the kitchen – perhaps this is a heart attitude or heart posture – or a great routine that has helped us leap into health or vitality with order and calmness in our lives – or maybe its family and friends that have been estranged for a season and now relationships are being restored – and we can benefit from being in the right place at the right time.
Plants need some essentials to survive, to grow, to bloom and to flourish. They need water, light, air, and a space to grow in.
People need some essentials to survive, to grow, to bloom and to flourish. For me, I need Jesus to water and nourish my heart and soul through His word, through prayer and through being with him.
I also need boundaries, routine and daily rhythms, whether these are spiritual, practical, physical, emotional or mental.
I need family and friends, laughter and tears. Because life is not always easy, and those who are willing to stick around for the good and the bad are keepers! I also need to belong and need a community to live out life with.
I need to live in the will of God and Acts 17:26 reads, “From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live” which gives me the assurance that God has determined what I will do and where I will live. All I need to do is seek His face and spend time with Him to gain wisdom and discernment for my day to day decisions.
As I type this I am aware that you reading this could be on any of these levels of this process. Take heart and don’t let your hearts be troubled if you’re facing a devastating, disappointing moment. Seek the Lord’s will and make decisions with his discernment and wisdom. If you’re blooming and thriving, praise the Lord for the spacious place He has brought you into.
With love from my home to yours
xxx
hope of heart 