By Maureen Buckingham

This year we were able to take a small last minute holiday in Chicago for 5 days. We were going to be driving there and doing some business along the way so the trip would last about 10 days. The only thing was that I had just put some hanging plants out on the front of our house and I didn’t want to lose them. To plan ahead, I asked two of my daughters to please water them if they were in the area. Unfortunately, the flowers were not watered over the May long weekend. Later during a phone call with one of our girls, she told me she had been by the house and one of the plants was pretty bad and she just wanted to warn me.

When we got home the plant was brown and shriveled looking. I soaked it and thought I would see what happened. A few days later I was getting some more plants for our yard at a greenhouse and I told them what happened. A gardener asked if there was any green left on the plant. I told him there was. He said that as long as there was some green I could get it to come back to life but it would look a little ugly for a while.

It was amazing how the little bit of life left in that flower was powerful enough to overcome the difficulty and seeming death to not only live but to come to life by growing and blooming again.

No matter how difficult some circumstances can get in our lives, we have to remember that we have the life of Christ. Things can look bleak or even hopeless but His power not only can sustain it can overcome it all and bring new life and hope.

This flower isn’t where it was originally when I bought it but it is alive and growing. Its beauty can be seen by all again and is a blessing. Don’t believe the lies of the enemy that things are just too far gone. God’s life is greater! Cling to Him, receive His Word, His love and drink of the living water and you will be renewed.

John 15:4 says, Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. AMPC