The plant looked almost dead when I brought it home a few years ago.

But I just couldn’t bring myself to throw it away.

No, it had been the plant my mother had gotten from friends when her mother (my grandmother) had died.

It had been part of my growing up as we moved from here to there across the country.

Now, though, as I looked at it my heart was heavy.

All through the long days and weeks of my mom’s decline it hadn’t been watered.

Was I going to lose this too?

Carefully I pulled away the dead leaves, watered the plant and place the pot in the corner of

 the dining room.

As with all things, time would tell.

God knows.

    He sees.

       He cares.

Over the next few weeks it began to shoot new growth

    and today it happily lives – green and growing

       reminding me that new life can come from seemingly dead plants.

The same is also true

    for relationships.

It is all too easy to throw out the pot,

     cross off the relationship,

        and consider it done. Only a memory.

But we serve a God Who continues to breathe fresh life

  into what might look dead to us.

I must be careful that I not consider something

    hopeless

    just because it looks hopeless to me.

I must remember that God is the God of Life

  and nothing is impossible with Him.

He continues to call us to plant His Seeds of Hope

    and Life

    and Peace

in a world that gives up oftentimes all too quickly.

Can these dead bones live? Ezekiel 37

Yes. But only as we begin to live out the heart of God with a passion

    like never before.

Can these dead bones live?

Yes, I am seeing it happen every day.