“Roots”:
Underneath it all, we have hidden stories, burdens, hopes, fears and even secret pain. We secure our insecurities the way we wear tight Spanx under cute dresses. But at some point, the truth pops out.
What’s underneath won't stay hidden forever. Like a plant with rotten roots, eventually spring time tells the truth. The blooms and fruits that come to the surface always indicate what’s going on underground.
Everyone wants the big blooms, the prized crop, but the true gardener knows that it is worth the time it takes to properly tend beneath the surface. When the garden is well maintained and managed, the blooms and fruits come through with ease; a natural flow that is not forced. In fact, it can't be forced. The growth happens, not because the gardener forcefully pulled on the stem, but because he made time for tending. Furthermore, the plant itself cannot force itself into productivity either. And it cannot produce fake flowers.
Humans are different. We can and we do fake it as we desperately try to make it. But maybe we oughta take notes from the gardeners and their plants, and notice the productivity of a healthy root system; the ease and flow that comes from a seed that goes into the ground at the right season, a seed that rests through the breaking open of its hard casing. The growth that follows flows with trust despite the dark of the dirt. It may seem lonely for a season, but the Gardener is there, although out of sight.
And then it happens. The plant emerges. As it is growing towards the light, the roots are growing too, continuing to get deeper and more secure. With a sturdy stance the stems extend upward and prepare to produce a harvest.
Its growth was slow and yet right on time.
What if we were to reject the urgency to be showy and productive in all seasons? What if we break out of the year round green house—the demand to make ourselves into constant producers? And how would we do that and not go under?
I suppose, in order to stop forcing our own growth, we would need a gardener. What if we made friends with The Gardener who knows about timing; who knows us down to the roots; who knows our whole story since we were mere seeds? He knows how our roots got tangles and bitter twists in them in the first place. This Gardener knows about seasons and rest and light and water. In His Garden, rest becomes productive. Would we learn to trust there is still light even when we feel buried in the dark?
If you think about it, gardens and graves aren’t that different— not until the growth happens. When the Light pulls a vibrant color from a place where no one saw it coming— that kinda growth can not be man-made or self manufactured. That plant doesn’t look exhausted or dull. It’s radiant and vibrant and flowing in trust. There has been a “tending before sending”(Psalm 23), a surrender to the one who knows his way around a garden. Don't fear the stillness. The life that grows in the Garden is right on time, and with good purpose.
stay inspired to come back to the Garden for the tending. Purchase prints of this art here.