Re-Potting

I spent a good chunk of my day off this week re-potting house plants. It's one of my favorite things to do that someone else might consider work.

Re-potting a plant whose roots have outgrown its old home is usually good for the plant. But that doesn't mean the plant likes it. Who enjoys being forcibly uprooted? My peace lily, in particular, appears to be sulking in its beautiful new pot.

I'll have dirt under my fingernails for weeks, and what do I have to show for it? A house full of upset plants, whose sagging bodies seem to moan, "Why, Michael, why? Couldn't you just leave us alone?"

I can relate to my plants. I rarely ask to be removed from patterns and places of comfort. When I'm forced away from them, I whine. I'm reminded of the Israelites in the wilderness, complaining that they'd just as soon have died in Egypt as well-fed slaves than starve to death in freedom.

As we begin a new school year, we are certain to face new challenges. The unexpected will arrive, turn us upside down, and shake us free of our old "pots" - the ideas and things that we've been holding so tightly. Yet, by the time you read this, my peace lily will be flourishing again, growing deeper, taller, and stronger. And, by God's grace, we will do the same.