Potted Plants

Just a random thought God has been speaking to me about lately. I have several friends who are at Master's Commission this year, and a few others that are planning on going to Portland Bible College next year. For some reason God keeps sending me out into the world, like right now at PCC or next year at PSU, even though I would love nothing more than to go to one of those good Christian places. I was tossing it around in my mind when God brought an analogy to me.

We are like potted shrubs.

When we are out in the world, exposed to the elements we grow slowly and steadily, bit by bit through each experience. Our bark gets thicker, our roots dig deeper, and we learn to depend completely on our Gracious Gardener.

Sometimes, He knows that we need shelter or recovery or fast growth and so He'll remove us from the world and its harsh environment and place us inside a greenhouse. These greenhouses are places were we are continually fed a steady diet of Bible, basking in the warmth of the Holy Spirit at all times, and can grow much faster. In the greenhouses, our branches and our dreams grow higher, our wounds heal, and we start becoming what our Gardener intended us to look like.

However, the greenhouse is not a permanent place of residence. A greenhouse is there for a period of growth, then we must be acclimated to the harsh world again. If a healthy plant is kept in a greenhouse too long, it can't grow higher, or dig its roots deeper. Disease begins to spread from the stagnant air, and eventually a place of life can become a place of death if change doesn't occur.

But if we do get removed from the greenhouse, and endure the conditions of the world, we can then thrive like we would never have been able to in the greenhouse. We reach higher pressing in closer to God. Our roots dig deeper as we cement ourselves deeper in his Word. And we move from being a small shrub to a mammoth tree. We start doing the job God made us to do, changing the atmosphere of the world.