Plant Raising

"Nothing will grow if your roots are rotten," a student with far more botanical knowledge than myself  only semi-critically whispered as she examined the classroom plants that line my window wall. I breathed in the metaphor as she unpotted and vowed to repot my greenish-brown broken promise from August when I said I'd keep these leaves alive. But staying alive with rotten roots is every bit impossible for a plant and a person -- I think back to that dreadful day in the garden, the original sin that rotted me to my core, the rotten roots that would end my life had the master gardener not come to tread on the very dirt He created and vowed to make me altogether new. Repotted, restored to wholeness and fullness, able to grow despite my rotten roots. It defies botany and science and all common sense that the creator of mountains and nations would take on my root-rot, die and then rise, that I might be planted in the soil of salvation and forever be alive.

Popular posts from this blog

2023!

 I bring to you: 2023! This is my sixth annual recap blog, a yearly recollection of the faithfulness of God as we trace His nearness and goodness month by month. This year's nearness and goodness feels more hard-won and powerfully prevalent than ever before. 2023 -- let's go! January: If I remember correctly, the sun didn't shine for thirty days straight, except a brief five-minute window when the world broke open to blue and we stopped class to stare outside. Students sword fought through Romeo and Juliet by day, I studied theology with friends and played Scrabble with my husband by night. We celebrated the baby showers for two of my dearest friends who told me they were expecting just two weeks apart. February: My least favorite month was marked by the sweet wedding of Nate and Hanna, growing in community as a church family, wintry walks, attempted plant-raising, and celebrating my sister's senior season of gymnastics. Trimester two transitioned to trimester three and...
Read more

2019!

What a year it has been! 2019 has been filled with an innumerable amount of blessings and lessons and as I sit here and reflect on the past twelve months, I can honestly say they have been some of my favorites of all time. One of my favorite ways to praise God is to reflect on His faithfulness, so I'm composing a flyover recap of 2019...mostly for my own sake, and yours too if you're bored. January: The year kicked off with a cinematic airport scene of me tossing my bags behind me and running into the arms of Maggie Theaker, my best friend who had been studying abroad in Ireland. We picked our bags right back up and boarded a plane to Belize with sixteen of my other best friends. The month was filled with laughter, deep conversations, sharing books, playing with children, teaching grammar, and exploring God's creation. I graded sentence diagrams and snorkeled, climbed ancient ruins and taught adjectives. God made it clear that I am meant to be a teacher, and this confirma...
Read more

2020...Wow.

2020- What. A. Year. It has been a rollercoaster filled with more uncertainty, anxiety, and tension than any year I have experienced. Yet, God in his goodness, once again, revealed more of himself and blessed me with gifts grander that I ever could have dreamed up on my own.  Like I said last year, "one of my favorite ways to praise God is to reflect on His faithfulness, so I'm composing a flyover recap of [2020]...mostly for my own sake, and yours too if you're bored." So here we go. January: The year started off with a bang, and by bang I mean agreeing to date the man of my dreams at 2:00 in the morning just hours before my plane left for Nepal. In an eleven-day whirlwind (that you've probably read about twice by now), we decided we might be compatible and figured it was safer to secure the package before spending a month on opposite sides of the world. Then, I took off on a 16-hour flight to Nepal to learn about the gut-wrenching injustice of human trafficking ...
Read more