The Parable of the Orchid

The orchid in 2009. 

Every year about this time I usually post a picture of my cattleya orchid and talk about a life lesson I learned from it: in short, I planted this thing when it was a baby and watered it faithfully for FIVE years.  I had begun to think it would never do anything but sit there and taunt me, but one day it bloomed--a rather bug-eaten bloom, but a bloom nonetheless.  The next year it produced two or three blossoms, and the next year it produced so many flowers I couldn't count them.  Everyone who came to the house marveled at the thing; it was truly a showpiece.  Lesson Learned:  patience pays off.

But this year . . . nada.  Not a single bloom, not even a sheaf containing a bloom.

New plant #1. 

And it wasn't hard to see the problem.

My orchid had simply outgrown its (huge) pot.  So I waited for a nice weather day, found another good-sized pot, and thought I would divide the massive plant in two.

Ha.  The plant's roots were tightly intertwined, and cutting/hacking through them was no easy feat.  And the plant didn't WANT to be divided in two, it wanted to be divided in fourths.  So I ended up with four large orchid plants, all of which are adjusting to their new homes.

New plant #2. 

And it struck me that this orchid is still teaching me lessons.  Sometimes we outgrow a situation in which we've been happy and fruitful.  I don't think this applies to marriages (or it shouldn't), but it certainly could apply to avenues of ministry, to occupations, and even to life itself.  Because one day we will all have used up our allotted number of days, and we will be ready to be transplanted to a new home.

So no pictures of orchid blooms this year.  Just pictures of new starts, each of them hoping to bear fruit in a new place.

In the doctrine of God's sovereignty, I know that everything that happens in my life is part of his plan for me. He will be with me, he will support me through it, everything is part of the grand adventure he has laid out for my life.  So if being "transplanted" means attempting new things in a new place, I'm up for it. And I'll trust him to ease me through the transition phase of adjusting to new surroundings.

Have you been transplanted recently? How was your adjustment? How did God prove himself faithful?

New plant #3. 

New plant #4. 

~~Angie