George, the Pandemic, and Easter

I have 7 plants on my back porch. I have had them all for many years. But don't think I have a green thumb, because I do not for sure. Its a lot of luck. If you really care to read about my past experiences with my plants here are the links to three previous posts about them, so yes, this is my 4th blog post about my plants. Ridiculous.

https://gadman4.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-lack-of-green-thumb.html

https://gadman4.blogspot.com/2012/04/update-on-george-and-friends.html

https://gadman4.blogspot.com/2012/10/update-on-my-babies-my-plant-babies.html

That last post was written in 2012. Almost 8 years later most of those plants are still alive and kicking. But this post is about George... and Easter. If you didn't want to read those posts (and I wouldn't blame you) I'll catch you up. I name my plants. The one I have had the longest is George. George was given to me by my husband on my first birthday after we were married, so I have now had him for 23 years. He has been on his death bed a few times, but always rallied and came back. But I really thought I had lost him this last time.

Basically George was dead a few weeks ago. I think I had left my plants outside when it dropped down below freezing one too many times. Or maybe they got rained on during the monsoon season too much. Or maybe it was the gnat infestation that got him. Or possibly the squirrels that thought my potted plants were a garden to dig in. Either way, George seemed to be a gonner. My kids told me to throw him away and have a funeral service. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't want to give up on him.

The other plants were struggling too, but they weren't past the point of no return yet as George seemed to be. So I tried all kinds of things to revive him. I took him out of his pot and gave him fresh soil, that's when I discovered the gnats. No difference. Gave him plant food, nothing changed. I finally took him apart into three pieces. I left one piece in his original pot, and I'm sad to say, I can now throw that away. Another piece I put in a glass of water. While it has not died yet, it is not growing, so I'm not sure how much longer it can hang on. But the third piece I put in a bowl from my kitchen in fresh soil and decided to put all my attention on it. Every day I check it, water it, move it inside or outside depending on weather. And for weeks I saw no change. The one piece left was still green, but it wasn't growing. I was just about to give up, and have that funeral service when I walked outside and saw this.

There, in the middle, George is growing again. I almost cried.

Its very symbolic of everything going on right now. With this pandemic, everything seems sad and lost and dying. We drove by the baseball fields today and I cried. And I know my boys not playing baseball is nothing compared to people losing their businesses, or being separated from their families, or being sick and actually dying. The past few weeks at work have been so stressful and sad and dark. But we know that eventually, we will come back to life. And I promise I will never again complain about too many baseball games!

We listened to Max Lucado last night on TV. He talked about Good Friday, Silent Saturday and Celebration Sunday. Watching George reminded me of Silent Saturday. We can't see what's going on in the dark. We think all hope is dead. We think we might as well give up, walk away and have a funeral service. We think we might live in this sad time forever. But God wants to remind us that we are in the waiting time. We might be in the dark, not seeing that seed that is coming back to life. We might not know when this time will end, but it will end. The light will come back. Our hope is in our Savior, who defeated death, won victory over sickness, and will give us strength and endurance during the waiting, during the silence. And just when we think its time to give up, life will come bursting forth! Tomorrow is Celebration Sunday, and it will be different as far as Easters go. But soon, when all of this is over, we will have an indescribable Celebration as we gather together again, loving our friends and community face to face, and celebrating the goodness of God.

My plant wasn't dead, just overwhelmed with his surroundings. Patience, care, love, endurance and LIGHT is bringing him back. May we rest in God's light this Easter and as we endure and wait during this time. Can't wait to see how we all grow and thrive when this is over. Happy Easter!

Covid Update #2

Covid update: As of tonight, our Children's Center is now closed, so all five of us will be home together. I'm kind of looking forward to it. I have a to do list for myself, but I also want to play games with the kids, or bake together, or walk together. I'm hoping to find something I can do with each son just the two of us. And I am ready to rest! The past few weeks have been some of the most stressful of my life. When I left tonight, I cried a few tears. I do have a peace about the decision, and pray that we are only closed a few weeks, but its emotional to walk away from it.

On the home front, I have been really impressed with how the boys have been handling their at home time. They really crave their school work, and are keeping up. Campbell is in band and is practicing as I type this, and sending videos to his band teacher. We have a new drum set and he's been spending lots of time in the garage. He's also found a game on the computer where he writes songs with different sounds. Cade has been spending time in the kitchen baking. And he's made dad go buy wood and has built some apparatus to use in the garage for baseball. Coop has painted a beautiful picture, has led an online FCA meeting, has had zoom calls with his fellow incoming MC freshmen, and still has legit dual credit college classes he's finishing up. And all three of them go outside everyday and hit or throw. We don't talk about baseball much though. We would probably all cry if we think too much about it. And Jason has been helping them all where he can while having church zoom meetings all day.

Easter is Sunday. It came fast. It will be different and quiet. I haven't had a lot of time this week to think about it, but I was in a zoom call tonight with my life group and we read Luke 24. When we read verses 5 & 6 "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen," I got a little choked up and probably would have fallen apart had there not been 12 other squares of people who could see me. It just was overwhelming to think of that. He was dead and came back to life. I was dead and he brought me back to life. I didn't go from bad to good, I went from dead to alive. More on that another day.