Where There Is Hope

In the mid-eighties, during our college years, some women who worked with my husband at his summer job gave him a plant as a parting gift before he returned to college. It survived many moves, but a couple of years ago started taking a turn for the worse. I salvaged two sections and repotted them, but one died within a few weeks. The other managed to hang on, but went through some tough times, including a fall that broke off one of its remaining two leaves. I am also ashamed to say that I forgot about it often and it went without water more than it should have. Finally, it got so bad that I almost threw it away.

In the end, however, I couldn't bring myself to abandon it, so I decided to give it one more chance. I potted it in a larger container and covered it with more protective dirt. I moved it to a new window where it had a different view of the sun and where I would see it every day and hopefully remember to water it.

This is that plant a few years later:

It flourished and a couple of years ago needed to be repotted into three separate containers. Today it was time to repot again:

One of the runners was 25 feet long!

Today was difficult for them, but trauma always is. Through it they will be stronger and healthier, reaching far beyond anything that attempts to contain them. They will be able to continue to grow because of what they endured today.

You may have someone in your life who is struggling. Someone who seems beyond help, no matter how much you love them. But where there is life, there is hope. No matter how desperate things seem, there is always hope. Never give up.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13