Sacred surprises

Those that know me, know that I have a fondness for taking pictures of flowers and plants. I was inspired by another Saint Brigid’s congregant, Douglas Toews. He carefully curated his social media by focusing on “beauty”. I began a practice of doing something similar as I mainly post photos of plants and my dog. 

This year I’m watching a plant grow in the most unlikely of places and under less than ideal conditions. This plant sprouted beside the main doors to my apartment building; tucked between the concrete sidewalk and a solid vertical wall. There can’t be much soil for its roots and the spot is covered by an awning so it can’t get much water. 

This plant has caused me to wonder. How did the seed find its way to this spot? How is it able to continue growing? Will it flower? How big will it get? Will someone come and pluck it out? Or will it be able to survive in the summer heat? 

All of this occurred while I was feeling anxious and worried. As I encountered the plant by the door several times a day, the words from Luke 12:22-31 came to mind. 

22 He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?d 26 If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;e yet I tell you, evenSolomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not keep striving for what you are to eatand what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, strive for hisf kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

While I would like to say I have the faith Jesus suggests, unfortunately I’m more like the disciples. I worry. But I will say, each time I see that plant literally between a rock and a hard place and then hear Jesus’ words, I feel some reassurance and feel a little less anxious. 

As we continue in Eastertide, I am thinking of how it must have been for the disciples and followers of Jesus in those days after the resurrection. I wonder if even in the face of that miraculous event that they still worried about the future. Surely it must have played in some of their minds; wondering what will come next? I can’t help thinking whether they recalled these words of Jesus and whether they found some reassurance too. I don’t have a big profound conclusion to my ponderings. However, I am reminded that there is a bigger picture; a view provided by Jesus Christ. Like that very small plant, I see small glimpses of that view and those small peeks are helping me make it through day by day.