Being moved...even when it's not comfortable

Last week I was watering my three plants. I am able to keep plants alive and thriving, but I choose not to have more because I only want to commit to the ones I have. I made a few observations while I was "tending" (watering, pulling off dead leaves, etc.) to them.

Isaiah 18:5 (NIV)
5 For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches.

LARGE PLANT IN BLUE POT
My dad died in 1991 and after the funeral, our family divided up flowers and plants amongst ourselves. I took this particular plant (idk the type) because it was from my Aunt Barb and Uncle Bob. I've had this plant 19 years and it's still healthy.Problem is, it has been in the same blue pot for a good portion of these past 19 years. I know that if I repotted it into a larger pot, it would probably grow even more.

Same with us...when we don't allow God to "repot" us into something different; bigger, we won't grow to our full potential. Is "repotting" uncomfortable? YES! We get "dirty," don't know where we are going and sometimes lose sight of the "gardener" who we should trust to take care of us and knows what is in our best interests.

LITTLE PLANT IN RED POT
I've only had this plant for about a year. It really wasn't doing much of anything "growth wise," but it wasn't dying either. When I rearranged some things during the Christmas season, I moved little red pot into the kitchen.You know what happened? The lighting and temperature must have been different in the kitchen than in the dining room and now it's getting new leaves and expanding.

Maybe we are happy where we are in life and don't necessarily feel a need to "move." It's nothing that we've done wrong, but maybe God wants us to get a different view of our surroundings. Expand our horizons. Enjoy the view.

REGIFTED POINTSETTIA
Two Christmas' ago, we kept getting pointsettia's as "token gifts" from family, friends and neighbors. It was awful! Why? Because then I feel an obligation to tend to these plants. I can't, in good conscience, dump them in the trash. So, I turned around and regifted many of these pointsettia's to different people. I considered it "natural recycling." :) I'm sure that the pointsettia that I ended up with was probably regifted to me, as well.Well...regifted pointsettia lost all of its red leaves and they grew back green, like they are supposed to. Many people told me some tips for getting the leaves to turn back red, but I had bigger fish to fry!

One of the main stems of the plant snapped. It wasn't completely broken off and was still producing leaves and new shoots! I took a garbage bag twist tie and tied it back onto the main shoot. Unless you were REALLY looking close, you wouldn't even know that it had been damaged and repaired.

John 15:1-4
1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Even in the midst of our times of "brokenness," God is still able to put us back together. Will we still have "battle scars" sometimes? Yes, but I think that shows us where we were and how far we've come.