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Faith and I have a Hummingbird feeder just outside of our kitchen
window, which overlooks our backyard. This morning I was enjoying watching
three of these little guys competing for a seat to slake their thirst. As I
watched them I looked over at our Gardenia bush and was reminded of the
aftermath of Hurricane Isabel in September of 2003. This had been our first
experience of a hurricane and we were astonished with the ferocity of this
storm. We had decided to stay and weather the storm so when it had passed we
were able to immediately see the damages that resulted from it's passing. The winds had taken down 60-foot pine trees as if they were matchsticks,
and elsewhere in town, many stately old oak trees. Amazingly the property
damage was relatively minimal although trees had crashed into and damaged
several homes throughout the area. Well our beautiful gardenia bush was bent
over almost double, but still in one piece. I decided to leave it alone
assuming that perhaps over time it would right itself naturally. Well of course that didn't happen. It remained bent with the branches
seemingly growing toward the ground and then shooting upwards. It actually
looked quite "disturbed" so I decided it was time to intercede, and although
I'm certainly no horticulturist, I preceded to attempt to affect some
"repairs" to our pitiful looking bush. Off to Lowes I went and purchased a
tree "staking" kit. It consisted of three lengths of rope, three clear
plastic tubes to go around the rope, and several sturdy stakes. Back at home
I proceed to dig around the roots of the bush in order to free it so that I
could then pull it upright. Everything seemed to be going OK until I gave it one final tug, and the
trunk snapped and split down one side, almost in two! I was devastated, but
decided to complete righting the bush, and staking it to stabilize it. I
waited and watched anxiously over the months to see if it would survive the
perhaps overzealous corrections I had attempted to make. To my delight, and
great relief, it did, and today it stands straight and "proud" delivering
its beautiful flowers to us in abundance. You can see the new growth, and
it's now past due to be pruned, but little evidence remains of the damage it
had sustained. As I was looking out the window and reflecting on the wonder of it's
recovery, it brought to mind the similarity to our lives. I of course hadn't
affected any repair to the bush. In fact my bumbling, although well intended
efforts, had probably almost finished it off. Left on its own it would have
righted itself all on its own. But I decided I wasn't going to wait for
that; I wanted it to look perfect now. But Someone else was looking after that bush just as He does for us. No
matter how broken we may be; no matter if our own efforts fail; He is
faithful to look after us. He has the infinite knowledge, ability, and
patience, to make all things right. We need simply have faith and trust in
Him. |
