Houseplants & Hope

(Years ago I wrote this as a blog post. It was edited and published in Embracing Hope During Infertility. Last night winter weather arrived, so I brought the houseplants inside, and began thinking about this story once again.) 

Another story of how God demonstrated to me how He can bring new life out of something seemingly dead happened a couple of years ago. Many people have pets, such as a dog that they take on walks, a cat who rules the house, or a fish that does whatever fish do, I will admit that I don’t have any pets... I have houseplants.

In my childhood home was an enormous house plant called a

split leaf philodendron, which had been given to my mother as a gift way before I was born. Around the time that I graduated from college, the plant split into several smaller plants. My mom gave me one of the smaller plants that quickly grew to its full size, earning the nickname “The Man-Eating Plant.” Each leaf was afoot or two long, so it took up a significant amount of space in my living room. This plant came with me when I moved to North Carolina, and it dominated our living room after Mike and I married.

Then came the winter when Mike and I put a good-sized Christmas tree in our small living room. Along with our furniture and the Man-Eating Plant, there was just no space left for people, or Christmas gifts, or anything at all! Something had to go. After considering the risk, we dared to move the Man-Eating Plant outside to our porch for the winter with the hope that it would survive until spring. I wrapped newspaper and plastic around the base of the plant hoping that it would retain some warmth.

Well, after the next cold frosty night, the once huge green leaves turned brown and drooped to the ground. My plant was not surviving the winter outside. I really felt sad about my loss. Summer came, and we moved what appeared to be the dead stalk of the plant from the shaded patio to a sunny area. I had a little bit of hope that it might revive in the summer sun and grow new leaves. It sat there for a while, and I ignored it, focusing instead on my tomato plants.

Then one day I noticed a little bit of life peeking out of the dirt in the container that once held my Man-Eating Plant. Out of the seemingly dead stump in the dry soil popped something that resembled a stalk of celery! But it was not celery – it was a new Man-Eating Plant! I was so excited to see new life! The tiny plant grew bigger and bigger! I was overjoyed that LIFE had sprung out of what had appeared to be dead!

One day Mike and I decided it was time to extricate the little plant from the root system. Thanks to his care and wisdom, Mike went to the store and bought a special saw so that we could carefully cut this baby plant out of the big one. We took the plant out of the pot, and while Mike was carefully pulling away the dirt and roots, he found another baby plant within the root system.

Then we found another. And another. At the end of our digging we realized that we had four little baby plants growing deep in the root system of our large and seemingly dead plant. This happened a year or two into our season of trying to get pregnant. I truly felt like God was showing me through His creation that even when a situation seems dead, or hopeless, He is capable of giving new and abundant life.