The Miracle of Growth

 by Monk George Lopez

1 Corinthians 3:6-7

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

What a blessing and a gift that God is always tending each of us so lovingly and giving us just what we need to grow. That growth for me in this season of my life has included my mom’s death. After collapsing from exhaustion, I slowly began to come back to life and into my body. Without even thinking, the first thing I did was I started to work in the yard. My father and grandfather were both gardeners, and I am so grateful that I inherited their love for plants and the earth.

I found myself making trips to Home Depot, returning with bags of soil, seeds, and bulbs. I started with 3 packs of seeds and a few dahlia bulbs, but that grew with each trip. I started with one empty flower bed, then another, and then filling empty pots that had been left in a corner of the yard. There is something so healing and so grounding having your hands in mother earth. It is such a deep connection to source.

Seeds fascinate me. I have always been in awe of what is contained within this tiny speck God. Inside is everything. Inside is a whole plant or even a huge tree waiting to be revealed. Water carries what is on the outer layer inside and life begins. Just like us. Everything is inside of us, our complete beauty waiting to be revealed. We just need God to grow.

My dahlias in bloom

The first thing I planted were sweet peas. Sweet peas are my favorite flower, one mom loved, and dad was famous for growing. It seemed like a way of honoring them both. The seeds are sometimes tricky to sprout, and germination is aided by soaking or nicking. You nick the small seed with a knife so that the water can get in. The seed coat is often too hard and needs some help.

Just like us. Often the most difficult and painful things that happen to us are God lovingly nicking our hardened outer shell so that his love can truly penetrate our hearts. We need to be broken open for true healing and growth to occur. It sounds so counter intuitive and yet is so necessary. He breaks us because He loves us. And he tends to us daily, watering, pruning, sometimes removing parts of our lives that no longer serve us. Parts that are keeping us from our growth, and that only He in His infinite wisdom can see need to go.

And through all of this, what is required of us is faith. The faith of a mustard seed, that with growth will in turn move mountains. And we need to surrender. We just need to be like the flowers. Flowers don’t worry how they’re going to bloom, they just turn towards the light. And they know that without the rain they would never grow. Here are my first dahlia blooms, turning towards the light. This song Little Flowers was from my youth. A group called Danny Lee and The Children of Truth. It truly sounds 1974 but has a sweet message. May God continue to rain his love upon you. Prune you, and mostly shine His countenance upon, so that you continue to grow and grow.

Love and blessings.