In my last blog I talked about clinging to faith and how my wise little cucumber plant reached out with a tender tendril to grasp firmly to the chain link fence.  I didn’t expect to be writing this ‘continuing saga’ of the life of my cucumber plant!

Two days after planting my little cucumber plant we were threatened with a frost.  Well, I wasn’t going to allow Jack Frost to victimize my young cuke.  I literally wrapped my cuke baby in blankets, first wrapping one around the base and then securing another one to the wire fencing I had put around it.  The next morning I unbundled my plant and saw that the leaves were limp and drooping and the strong brave tendril had lost its grasp.  🙁   There still seemed to be some strength in the plant because it was still standing.  Certainly, if it was a withered limp mass on the ground, I probably would have bid it farewell.  I decided to continue to nurture it and give it time.

All I can say is that cucumber must have had some strong roots!  A week later, you can see the withered limp leaves and tendrils of the frost-bitten plant, but in the middle of the stalk you can clearly see an eruption of fresh green leaves and even the beginnings of a blossom!

Oh the things we can learn from nature!

The cucumber plant survived because it had put down strong roots.  The part you could see above ground had been beaten up pretty bad, but the unseen strength of its roots continued to keep the plant alive and growing.

What kinds of ‘frosts’ have you endured; a broken marriage, loss of a job, declining health, a shattered friendship, a disappointing life event, or countless other painful and chilling circumstances?  Many people crumble when life tests them.  But if you are strong in your faith, you have girded yourself with knowledge of God’s word, surrounded yourself with friends who share your faith, and have surely prayerfully sought God in simpler circumstances, then your roots will hold you strong.

Colossians 2:6-7  As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Ephesians 3: 17-19 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Like my little cucumber plant, we are sometimes hit with the storms of life and we will feel like we just can’t hold on any longer.  Those storms will make us feel like we just can’t live through another day.  But if we have rooted ourselves in our faith, God will give us the strength to keep going.  The warm sun and quenching rain will help us with new growth and life!

Lessons from my cucumber 🙂

Just Laurel