Class In Session: An Orchid Ordeal

One of my favorite things in the world is flowers. I absolutely adore them. I love planting and feeding and gardening and mostly seeing them bloom. I always have. There's just one little problem, I've destroyed almost every plant I've ever owned. I'm a "Green Thumb Wannabe".

Orchids may be on my top 5 list of favorites, but I've never dared buy one because. . ., well you already know. Owning orchids also requires a little bit of an investment. The last thing I want to do is throw my money away and destroy the poor plant that once bloomed gorgeously before it was entrusted to my care.

Last May my husband bought an orchid for me on Mother's Day. I had asked for one because I felt I was ready and committed to change my plant ways. It was the most beautiful orchid I had ever seen. Well, I think all orchids are beautiful, however I especially loved this one because I got to admire it every morning and it made me happy.

This is what my orchid looked like until . . .

. . . a couple of months later when its green leaves began showing brown spots ~ not a good sign. So, I bought orchid fertilizer and poured it over the roots. Well, what did that do? The browning intensified. In a short amount of weeks, the leaves fell off. I knew the end was near.

By July, my once gorgeous orchid was a hollow twig. Even the roots were dried out. I wish I had taken a picture to show how pathetic looking it had become. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was look at a dead plant every morning, therefore I did what I had to do ~ I threw it away.

The very same week I was sharing my sad orchid story with a friend. She said, "Why'd you throw it away, they come back!" I reassured her, not this one!

But, her words stuck in my head, "they come back".

The next day I dug into the garbage - oh, yes I did! And, I took out the dead plant that had been buried for a few days. I said, let's see if it's true. I went to my local gardening shop and purchased a different fertilizer, this time a spray. I watered the dead twigs, sprayed some fertilizer, and waited to see if in fact orchids do come back. I wasn't convinced, but I had to try.

I watered and sprayed the dead thing each week. Nothing was happening, but I was faithful and determined to see this through. Months later, lo and behold, I spotted a little green something. A leaf. A sign of life. The leaf began to grow. Another month passed and I spotted another leaf sprouting. Then, I couldn't believe my eyes, a stem broke through. Little by little, week after week, the plant slowly came back just like my friend had promised.

This is my orchid seven months after I had dug it out from the trash.
The buds look desperate to pop open.

Here is my orchid on March 20, the first day of Spring. My first resurrected bloom beautifies my porch with such confidence and joy. This from a plant I had given up on, had literally thrown away, and lived inside the garbage receptacle for a few days. I'm so glad it didn't hold a grudge.

I know this is silly, but this orchid ordeal gets me a little emotional.

It proved to be a life lesson for me on so many levels.

Lessons Learned:

1 ~ Don't be so quick to throw things away.

My mom is NOT a hoarder by any sense of the word. She taught us to purge, purge, purge ~ totally despises clutter. I think I may have some of that in me as I was quick to get rid of that which was not working. I judged the plant by the way it looked at the moment, not on its potential to come back.

How many other things do I just give up on because I'm focused on what it looks like at the moment? Dreams, seemingly crazy ideas, "something" I've been chewing on, but figure there's no way it could "live" beyond the moment.

My resurrected orchid inspires me to go look for those ideas, those dreams, I once had but threw away. No, there are no guarantees they will bloom, but they're worth digging out and dusting off, watering and feeding a little . . . Giving over bloom control to God. He can decide the when, the what and the if's, my job is to water and feed and keep it alive.

2~ Blooms come and go, but the plant still lives.

It's not just dreams and crazy ideas that we throw away, sometimes we put ourselves away. We hastily judge ourselves, and maybe others, by what is visible, without realizing that there are invisible miracles working in our favor. We must allow our "potential" time to grow and mature. When the process is done, the blooms will come. God will make sure of that. And, then when the season is over, the process will begin all over again.

3~ There is power and life available to us if we would just believe.

Jesus was beaten, crucified, thrown away, buried in a tomb. But, God, His Father, and ours, picked him up from where he had been thrown away. In three days, He rose again more mighty and powerful than before. God wants to do the same with you and with me. He wants to breathe life into those things we have deemed dead, or thrown away, or given up on. As long as we have Christ, life is always available. Someone told me my orchid could live, someone told me not to throw it away. I believed and today it lives much healthier and more beautiful than before.

Romans 8:11 promises the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us and wants to bring life back to us. The plant is not dead, it's just a new season. We can "bloom" again. Believe again. Live again.