Grace, Peace and Miracle Grow

A few years ago, a friend of ours gave Kathy and me a Thanksgiving cactus. It was a very young, very small plant. We loved what it was and what it could be, so we took care of it and it grew a few sizes and got repotted into another and then another container. It was an impressive Schlumbergera truncata specimen. However, though it had grown to a mature size and was a healthy plant, I could not get it to bloom very much. For a couple of years, it would put forth less than a dozen blooms and then quit.
 
So, I went down to Raleigh Road Nursery with my problem. I talked to Tim who told me first, and with a smile, that I needed to remember that “the Good Lord didn’t make any indoor plants.” He encouraged me to take my plant outside in the spring when temperatures were above 50 degrees and leave it there all summer. It could take full sun, but not too much. And, feed it. Then, in the fall, when temperatures begin to drop, bring it inside, he said, and it will bloom its heart out for you sometime in October or November. I did what he said, and he was exactly right. The first November, it bloomed prolifically, and again, the next year. However, though I did everything I was supposed to do again the third year, it bloomed rather half-heartedly. Again, this year, not so many blooms.
 
I have not yet been back to get more information and instruction from Tim. And, I don’t have a degree in agricultural or biological engineering from NC State. So, I’m left to figure this out with what I do have, which is a theological degree in one hand, and in the other hand a fist-full of dirt. So, I’ve concluded on my own that the lesson here is this: you can’t control everything. Weather and humidity, and soil quality, and air quality, and plant physiology, and photosynthesis, and the “Good Lord” all have a hand in what happens to even the finest plants during the blooming season. I’m learning to be good with that this Thanksgiving, whether there are five blooms or fifty.
 
It dawned on me this week that this is also a good lesson for Advent. Advent is a season of preparation when we do the hard work of tending to the soil of our faith life. We dig into the scripture. We consider what our ancestors went through. We reflect on the words of the prophets. We read again the accounts of the lives of Elizabeth and Mary, Zachariah and Joseph. And, after all that, we are better prepared to testify to – bloom, if you will – this Jesus who was born into our world and who brings to us – and to all – new life.
But there are no guarantees. We can’t control everything. We do the work of preparation. We fortify ourselves. We hope. We long for the coming of the Kin-dom. But it is not we who bring it to fruition. Once again, it is the Good Lord.
 
We have some long nights ahead of us still. The Winter Solstice is on December 21. Until then, the days will get shorter and the nights will continue to lengthen. For a while, more than half of each day will be drenched in darkness. And, during that time, we prepare. We wait, we hope, we long for something more.
 
Our cactus has finished blooming for the year. Now, it is just sitting there on the plant stand by the window, just being a cactus. In the spring, it’s going back outside.
And, we will see.
 
Grace and peace and Miracle Grow,
Morgan
 

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