It dawned on me just recently why I love spring so much. I certainly enjoy the beauty of flowers and fresh green leaves. Warmer temperatures are also a plus. Yet, since I’ve learned to make gardening less of a chore and more of a joy, it is the promise for new life that makes me appreciate spring the most.
One of my favorite southern staples is the hydrangea. I love it because in most varieties, new life for each spring comes from its dead wood. I’ve found the same is true with some of my roses. The dead wood is the skeletal remains left when the first freeze zaps those green leaves right off. Without the leaves, my plants look less suited for the garden and more apt for a haunted house.
I learned the hard way that when the dead wood was cut, there would be no blooms that spring. Green leaves eventually emerged, but no flowers.
Not even one.
Those awful looking dead stalks laid bare by the cold of winter are necessary for later blooms!
If God does that much for my garden, how much more is He doing for me?
Our dead wood can produce new life as well. Those times when we feel like we’ve been stripped bare actually teach us what we need to manage our new beginnings. I believe it is far easier for us to appreciate some facets of life after we’ve experienced loss. Our “dead” situations can impart wisdom, compassion and knowledge that we can later access when God ressurects our dry bones!
I’ve experienced a few “resurrections” for which I am very grateful. There were times I felt dead, dry and brittle. I probably looked the part as well. It felt like my “winter” would last forever. But I clung to hope and continued to pray. I’ve since learned the absence of a “yes” isn’t’ necessarily a “no.”
Sometimes God’s silence simply means, “Not now.”
I think some of us become so disheartened with our defeats/death that we lose hope for future blooms and fruit yet to come. So much in the garden has to “die” before it can ever produce again. There are things in each of us that must die if we are ever to grasp hold of the blessings our Father would give us.
If you have a “dead” situation or simply feel like all the life has been sapped out of you, fear not! Our God specializes in resurrecting the dead. With God, there is always hope for a new and victorious life.
Even here on earth.
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. John 12:24 NKJV.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 NKJV
B Is for Blessed! 
Very true words. I like how you interpreted the dead wood in life as well as in the garden. Very good post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for stopping by to check it out!
LikeLike
Oh for those ‘resurrections’…Beautifully encouraging post Lilka, thank you and blessings and peace to you my friend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very lovely post!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much! I appreciate you stopping by to check it out. B Blessed 🙂
LikeLike
I love this, Lilka! I’m going to share it with our Facebook group.
~Steve
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have at it Steve! Enjoy your day 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Lilka! I just had to “swipe” another of your great posts! I had the greatest first blooms in my rose garden a few weeks ago!
Take care…
~Steve
LikeLiked by 1 person
Don’t mind at all! Enjoy your day ☺ My roses just got started this week! Take care.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And the funny thing is, this is the first year in the past 3-4 that I didn’t throw out the Miracle Grow…(hummm??)
~Steve
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes it’s like that. ☺
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Sometimes God’s silence simply means, “Not now.””
Lilka, what a fab post! And that sentence jumped out at me as so true in my own walk. I have tried the same thing in “real life” (!!) and find it irritates others enough for “so what do you think” to be repeated with increasing tempo (as I do to others!). Yet when He is silent – it is enough. It is all – because I trust Him implicitly. And I find the really weird! Because He has no “agenda” ever – simply love for me and others.
(and I have come to think that if He always said yes – or no – it would mean my “needs” jumping the queue over others!)
Thank you!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Paul for “getting” what I was trying to convey. People tend to be a rather impatient lot these days but if we can learn to be secure even in the “quiet times” we can accept the peace that God is continually offering.
I like the point you make about jumping the queue. I think some of us feel that if we must wait we will somehow miss out on the good things in life, as if God doesn’t have enough blessings for the rest of us.
Peace and love to you brother! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person