Jan 11, 20202 min read

Unexpected Growth?

Chopping up green onions, I thought about the small roots on the ends. What would happen if I planted these? Deciding to find out, I left an inch of the onion on two and the rest cut off lower. Planting these in pots, I watered them and began waiting.

What does waiting look like? Watering and checking.

That was about ten days ago. To my surprise, one of the little roots sprouted growth within a day (one of the onions that I had left longer). More surprising to me is that others, which I had cut lower, are also growing.

This should not be a surprise to me, I’m sure, since onions I haven’t used yet grow. Why am I so interested in growing onions? Something, like what I have thrown out numerous times, was capable of growing! That is why I’m so interested. What else in my life am I throwing out, but could save?

That begs another question, what in my life am I saving that I need to throw out?

I can get rid of the majority of something, but if the root is still intact – it will grow.

What if I rip out things in my life that I know need to go, like envy and selfishness, but I leave just a little jealous? It will grow!

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” I Peter 2:1-3 ESV

The Lord knows our hearts. He knows my heart, my sins, my struggles. He knows when I think I’m doing what is right. He knows when I’m holding on to even a fragment that He wants me to let go of.

Proverbs 21:2 assures that I’m not the one who gets to determine right and wrong, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.”

How can I live for the One who weighs the heart? I can ask Him to change me and fully surrender to Him, even with the things that I’ve buried and no one else knows about. In Him I can open my dirt covered fingers so that He take the weeds from me. He will plant good.

What do I need to let go of? The small, insignificant, hidden roots may take more time, but they will grow. There is so much to learn from the plants God has created and so much more to learn from the Creator.