This lovely little shrubbery was planted in our yard before we moved in.
It seems that landscapers had carelessly planted it in a place that wasn’t healthy.
They had one job to do, and that was all that they cared about. Get the plant in place.
But, they put the plant in a precarious place.
This type of shrubbery requires as much shade as sun. But the landscape crew planted it in a place where it got way too much, nonstop direct sunlight.
It really didn’t have a chance.
It started to droop.
We noticed it didn’t look good.
We watered the shrub a few times.
But it didn’t make it.
It died a slow, ugly plant death.
It turned grayish brown and crackly. A bird built a little nest and spiders built some webs in the dead limbs.
It was dead.
One day, I decided it was time to get rid of the deadness.
I was going to get it out of the yard and transplant it to the trash can.
I found my nasty old garden gloves. I grabbed the tree at its scrawny base and I grabbed it, I pulled and yanked.
Then I shook it…violently.
I was trying to uproot it.
I couldn’t do it. The roots were too deep.
I just shook it up.
I think I might have made it a little crooked.
But the roots wouldn’t budge and I walking away, vowing to return with a shovel or a backhoe.
But then, I got distracted, and I forgot about the shrub.
After all, it was just a little ugly crooked bush.
AND, for ALL of last year, it was undeniably dead…dingy…dry…done.
But then something impossible happened…
Resurrection.
A while back, we noticed green.
It was there, undeniable, unexpected.
It was spreading…
LIFE in dead places!!
AND, now this summer, the shrub is ALIVE!!
I don’t know what happened, maybe the shaking brought it back to life. Maybe new life requires a shake up.
Resurrection happens.
But, It ONLY happens in dead places.
What about you?
Do you feel ALIVE?
Or do you feel like you are dingy…dry…done?
Are you looking at some dead dreams, relationships, situations?
Know that your roots run deep.
But, maybe you need a shakeup.
You need the impossible to be shaken loose.
Listen…
“Lazarus, come forth!”
Bloom again!
Life is coming to the dead places.
“there will come a time when you believe everything is finished, that will be the beginning.” – Louis L’amour
carbonated joy 