I didn't notice this beautiful fern until after a really bad rain storm. Then sitting there, in between two branches, sat this vibrant green fern.
It's an interesting plant and it's estimated that it can go 100 years without water and live in a dominant state but just a few drops of water will restore this beautiful plant to it's full glory.
This fern gets more interesting, it lives on other species, like trees, however not in a parasite kind of way. It attaches itself to a host tree but does not take nutrients from the host. It gets all it requires from the air and from water that collects on the bark of the tree. Wikipedia said this "Epiphytes differ from parasites in that epiphytes grow on other plants for physical support and do not necessarily negatively affect the host."
So as I have watched this fern come and go with the rain storms and dry spells, I started thinking about us in our walks with God.
For so many of us we are in a dry dormant state, unnoticed by the world around us. Christ is like the host tree in that we attach ourselves to Him for 'physical support', our Rock. We don't take from Him, we just survive on what is around us in the environment, or from our Pastor's sermons each Sunday or the Scripture of the Day fix. We are alive, kinda, but we are never seen in the full glory and potential that we have.
Then a storm comes through and we get hit hard by the rain and wind. Our leaves are drenched and at the time we are not sure what is happening and if we will ever make it. The storm passes but then the most amazing thing happens.
Out of the violence of the storm the rain awakens our souls and we stretch forth our beautiful leaves and then, where once brown dead leaves lay, the landscape is changed by a bright green foliage.
So as I have thought of this in my own life I realized before my world was turned upside down I was a dominant fern, all curled up and brown. The storm hit and I cried over the heavy rain but now after the storm I understand how badly my soul needed the rain to awaken me. So if you are a fern too, don't fear the storms in your life but see them as an opportunity for the refreshing rain of God to revive your soul and so you can be seen in the full glory of what God has created you to be.
You, O God, did send a plentiful rain; You did restore and confirm Your heritage when it languished and was weary. Psalm 68:9
I'm dedicating this post to the people in Louisiana that went through the flood and pray that God provides complete restoration!
