My Butterfly Bush
I went outside one day and I was really bummed out when I saw my butterfly bush (AKA lantana). None of its former glory remained. It was nothing but a bunch of dry sticks. And the sticks weren’t even uniform. It looked terrible. It looked crazy. I broke off a few sticks and thought that this was a lost cause. I marched myself inside and informed my husband that I needed him to pull that dead bush out of the ground asap. It was an eyesore in my flower bed. “No way those dry sticks can bloom,” I thought.
Wise Counsel
My husband had a different opinion. He told me to wait, that the bush was going to come back to life. I knew it was supposed to, but the appearance caused me to doubt. There was no way that dead bush full of dry, ugly, misshapen sticks was going to bloom again.
I waited, and waited, and the dry sticks remained dry sticks. I mentioned it to my mom, and she agreed with my husband. Just wait. Be patient. It will come back. The longer I waited, the less I believed them. I know they are intelligent and mom has always had a green thumb, but those sticks were so beyond saving. I couldn’t see past my own vision. My eyes were telling my brain “there is no way.” I had zero hope.
One day I walked out and like magic, there were greenery and blooms. With only a little bit of green and flowers in the middle, I remained skeptical. The rest still looked terrible. It’s not going to make it. How foolish I was! As you can see from the picture, the butterfly bush not only bloomed but is taking over the sidewalk.
Dry Sticks Can Bloom
If I had gone with my first hunch, that whole butterfly bush would have been trashed and forgotten. And I love these pretty little blooms! It reminded me that we can’t always trust our eyesight alone to make decisions or jump to conclusions. We have to have wise counsel and we have to be patient. It’s important to have prior knowledge and experiences in order to make good choices. We have to believe that dry sticks can bloom. We have to have faith and hope in things that were once beautiful being beautiful once again.
People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.
1 Peter 1: 24-25 (NLT)