Once Broken

I felt a bit giddy as we drove up the hill toward home, carrying a precious tomato plant I had searched  for weeks to find: a Super Sweet 100. I had tasted it’s fruit and knew it to be as good as candy. We discovered one nursery with one overgrown Super Sweet left in its stock, a reject left behind during the closing planting season. It was mine! I couldn’t wait to get it in the ground and nurture it into its fruit-bearing days. I began imagining summer parties, sharing platters of delicious caprice salads with tomatoes and basil from my own garden. I recalled listening to a gardening tutorial on a local radio program – trim off the bottom branches and lay the base and the roots horizontally in a shallow trench to ensure a broader root system receiving warmth from the sun. It was certain to produce a better yield.

Donning my purple gardening gloves, I gathered my rookie gardening skills and carefully dug my trench, gently removed my treasured plant from its container.  I pinched off the lower branches, all exactly as I had been instructed from the radio tutorial. I laid the large plant horizontally in the soil and gently bent the stalk above the ground to enable it to grow vertically, when all of a sudden, to my horror, I heard and felt a brittle SNAP! In my left hand I held the stalk along with all the top branches of the plant, completely severed from the lower half of my plant and from the roots, its source of life. Kneeling before the troubled plant, a question emerged: Do I throw it away?  What if a plant mends like our own broken bodies mend? Cells regenerate to knit a bone back together at its broken point, stronger than the bone had been prior to the breaking. What if a plant can do the same?

I walked casually past my husband, busy on his own huge patio project, and then sprinted to the kitchen drawer.  Grabbing our packaging tape, I headed right back to my lifeless plant. I tore off about 6 inches of this 2 inch tape.  Steadying the upper branches, I set the stalk on top of its disconnected base and bundled it together again.  Then, ignoring the former gardening advice, I dug a deep hole and dropped the entire plant vertically into the ground (deep enough to cover the mailing tape).

For the next few days I ventured daily to the garden. The top leaves didn’t begin to curl…as a matter of fact after a few days I began to see tiny yellow flowers emerging…LIFE!

The life from the root began to flow upward into the broken plant, healing its wound. Carrying its own strength into every branch, fruit began to emerge. Today this mended plant bears more fruit than any other plant in my garden!

                                                                                                                   Once Broken…

Bones mend. Plants mend…what about the human soul? Is genuine healing possible for a severed soul?   Yes, my friend: Souls mend. My own soul has resembled that broken vine more than once. I’ve navigated agonizing seasons, where I lost hope of ever bearing fruit again. I’m sure many of us have experienced that same terrifying brokenness. Life’s daily circumstances and tragic blows have a way of snapping the soul and severing our vine from our Source.   How does the human soul recover?

God identifies himself as the Master Gardener. Though my hands were shaky as I attempted to mend my broken plant, His are not. He mends, with confidence, the broken branches of our lives.   John 15:1  “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the Gardener… ⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”

Jesus never casts away the fractured life He died for.  When we cry out to Him from the withered place of our circumstances, He will stoop down and lovingly bind us to himself. It’s not our work, our own self-striving to mend; it’s His work in us, the main vine grabbing hold of our frail branches and regenerating them with His healing power.

In my garden the lifeless limb, that limb that was bound by the hand of this novice gardener, became the strongest…the largest plant.  Nothing in the garden brings me more joy than the fruit of this vine.  I can’t help but smile with sheer awe and joy.  Is this but a glimpse of the joy our Father feels when He sees fruit emerging from lives once broken? Is this the joy He allows us to taste? Is this how He receives lasting glory from our lives?

Don’t ever believe the lie that your broken life has disqualified you: that a shameful failure, a bitter wound, or a grave error has caused him to cast you aside. He invites you to hand your brokenness to Himself.  Watch what he can do with a life that is humbly anchored to His own!   Our Father receives praise from the sweet fruit born in our broken lives. The world is nourished.  Our lives become another chapter in the grand story of God’s grace.

Anchor of Hope: John 15:8 When you produce much fruit… this brings great glory to my Father.

 

Anchor of Hope:  Jeremiah 9:24a  This is what the Lord says,” … those who wish to boast should boast in this alone:  that they truly know Me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love…”

Questions to Ponder:

1. Is there a broken area in your life you believe has disqualified you from ever bearing fruit again?
2. What keeps you from bringing that broken area to the Father? Whether it is a fragile limb or a vital branch, bringing life to all you are, offer it to Jesus. A life grafted into His own will be stronger than you can imagine: It will bear sweet fruit. It will bring Him great glory. It will yield your deepest joy!

Beauty Awaits,

Patty