VIVID ENCOUNTERS: The Way The Flowers Grow
I am sure we can all think of it, that time or moment when things didn’t quite turn out the way we expected, but in such a way that our lives were completely changed. Perhaps wounds erupted or scars began. Either way, pain is something we all know and we all have felt. And it’s equally something we all avoid, for fear that should we be broken, we will never find ourselves whole again. Which in and of itself sparks a brokenness even in the most whole, to live with a mindset that what we have once been we will forever be. Whatever has occurred or imprisoned our circumstances, we shall find no freedom from – whether because of our own actions or something completely beyond us.
In a broken world with a broken way of life and a broken way of thinking, redemption is vivid.
It’s unmistakable and not easily forgotten.
For it is an encounter that not everyone has or knows to exist.
The thing about magnolias is that they grow in their own way. Alot of flowers with their deep roots need to remain to thrive. Even if storms come or they are broken, it is best for them to remain. Staying still and hoping for the best is perhaps the most they can do within hard, unpredictable situations. But magnolias are different.
When their roots are severed, they grow stronger.
When their roots are severed, it is in that time that it is safer for them to be moved to new spaces.
When their roots are severed, it is an opportunity for new beginnings.
Not all of us have had that same opportunity when our roots have been severed; not all of us have known we could. That we could perhaps grow stronger in the midst of brokenness. And not through bitterness, but rather redemption.
The severed roots of magnolias are chances for them to begin again, to stretch their roots into new, deeper spaces. Romans 8:28 gives us the same promise these magnolias have within their very roots, their DNA.
“For those who love God, He will make all things work together for their good.”
This means that situations that have hurt us, good can come from them. People that have torn us down, God can redeem those words and decisions to bring beauty into our lives. It isn’t the way of a god wishing for harmful things to befall us; it is the way of a powerful God. A powerful God, so creative and so real that He can bring beauty even from the most broken. Even from the most deeply severed roots.
That means severed roots can grow again and that even broken spaces and situations do not define us. This redemption, this way of life that is offered to us, is incredibly vivid.
It is a promise that no one else in all of history has been able to make – and keep. Since the beginning of time, there has only been one who could give life in the same way the magnolias grow – in the brokenness, in the hurting, in the unknown, in the unseen.
He is vivid and his lifestyle of redemption is unmistakable.
In the way the magnolias grow, in the way he can heal our hearts, give new beginnings, and give growth even through the most desperate circumstances.
And this way of living gives magnolias freedom.
They don’t have to hide themselves away from the world. They don’t have to protect themselves. They do not have to be afraid.
Come what may, there is redemption and a way of living that will always, always bring beauty from their brokenness.
It’s simply how they were made to grow.
It’s a way of living and the way we were made to grow.
Not in hiding, not in bitterness, not hiding our wounds nor hidden by them. It is in our DNA, this freedom of redemption.
It is how the magnolias grow and how we were made to live. A life so full that even brokenness is beautiful.