Transplanting Grace

My husband gave me two low-maintenance house plants for Valentine's Day and in the last 10 months I've slowly added to my collection. I am by no means a gardener and the emphasis is on low maintenance. But I love them. I love the vibrance they bring to the room and I've been surprised to find caring for them is a calm nurturing outlet. I'm also surprised they're all still alive. I recently transplanted one to a bigger pot and I think I did something wrong. It's not dead, but the branches and leaves fall off if I lightly touch them. It got me thinking about where I've been at lately- not dead, not fruitless, just weak and fragile.

My body is expanding both physically and emotionally as I grow this little life, and there are some new "pots" I'm being planted into. It's left me feeling weak, tired, and generally coming-up-short. Of course there is a natural fragility and weariness that comes with the unstable hormone levels, but I believe God uses the circumstances of our lives to speak to us and to grow us.

It's too easy to see the branches falling off and think we're missing something, doing something wrong, but today I feel at peace with leaving things behind. I want to embrace the transplanting of life. There are overwhelming unknowns and challenges we face, and even greater ones coming. But I am known by God. My heart, my weaknesses, fears and needs, my dreams and the cloudiness I often feel surrounds them. They might not be met or fulfilled, but they are known, and today that's enough.

So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

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For those wondering, for the month of October I am participating in the 31 Days Writing Challenge put on by the lovely Myquillyn Smith of The Nesting Place. Read about it and find other bloggers here.