Beautiful Blooms
My husband bought me an orchid for our anniversary about 4 years ago. It was so beautiful and full of blooms, every petal perfectly perfect. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of caring for one of these unique, finicky botanicals then you know how difficult it is to keep them alive. I am such a brown thumb, many Aloe Vera plants have perished under my watch! Within days, the petals of the orchid blooms started loosening from their stems and falling off, dredging up those fears that this magnificent splendor of a plant would meet the same demise as the aloe. Once a week, when I give it water, I have to place ice cubes around it so the water is distributed at a snail's pace, so as not to shock the plant and kill it. When the blooms had all fallen off and all that was left was a stick, I thought okay, that’s it for this one. But then, it sprouted a new leaf so I held on to hope that it would bloom again, restoring it’s artistic blooms.
Two years went by and nothing...just the green, large petal-like leaves of the plant, but no signs of a bloom anywhere in sight. Three years went by and I was just about to toss it in the garbage when I noticed a stem shooting up from the center. Again, I shelved the trash idea out of hope this just might be it! Low and behold, three years later, we had a whole new set of magnificent blooms! However, I was still determined that after this stem had finished blooming, I was done with this plant, because who wants to wait three years for a bloom? Not this girl...
Then one morning my daughter sent me a video of a man instructing how to speed the production of orchid blooms. I watched to see what the scientific formula was so I could learn the ways of the expert. When I saw this one simple step to set the orchid in bloom, I was amazed! The expert gardener showed how by just cutting the stem at the fourth knuckle, you can revitalize the orchid. That is it, just cut the dead off and continue to patiently water with the ice cubes, once a week. DAYS LATER folks, not months or years, not just one new stem sprouted forth, but a bonus two stems! The glorious blooms you see in this photo are the results of following instruction from the expert and quickly applying it.
Isn’t this exactly how our lives are? We are constantly striving to get to where we want to be, and seldom take the time to stop and see what the expert says. The expert over my life is my Father God and He’s already provided me with the instruction book, the Bible, yet stubbornly I still attempt to do it all myself, until I’m to the point of desperate. How many of you can relate? God’s been showing me lately, how to start with Him. He has been showing me how much more difficult life is, until I simply ask Him for help. Small, little silly things, too. A couple of weeks ago, I was feeling under the weather, so I went to bed early. My feet were so cold. Nothing I did, no matter how many layers I put on, I could not get my feet warm and was awake until 2:00 AM. Cold is definitely not my favorite thing. I finally whispered a little prayer, “Father God, please restore the warmth to my feet and bring me sweet sleep.” Instantly, the warmth flowed from my legs into my feet and within minutes I was fast asleep! He’s the expert, He made me, perfectly designed for His purpose.
In psalms 55:22 ESV The Word says “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you, He will never permit the righteous to be moved.”
We are going to take a closer look at this passage of scripture and get down to the nitty gritty of it. Webster defines the word “cast” this way; “an act of throwing something forcefully” but also defines it as, and this is my favorite definition; “to cause light to appear on a surface.”
If we “cast our burden” we are literally throwing that burden into the light, because God is light, right? And when we pray, we are causing light to shine on whatever we are praying for, no matter how big or small. It’s all important to Him. The blooms on my orchid, the warmth in my feet….these things might sound silly small, but they were important to me, therefore important to Father God.
So, why do we wait to pray?
In one word; patience. Remember me wanting to trash the orchid, just because it didn’t bloom again, when I wanted it to? I wasn't using patience.
He loves us and knows us so well. Each teeny tiny concern of ours is crucially important to Him. His plan is for our prosperity and what His lavishly orchestrated plan leads to is the next step in manifesting those beautiful bloom moments in our life. He IS the source of our everything.
