I love orchids.
I distinctly remember buying a beautiful orchid when I was in high school. I was certain i could keep the thing alive because I'm pretty good with plants, but orchids are like cats: they want to be left alone, and I've never really been a cat person. All that to say, when I bought my first orchid, I promptly killed it because I overwatered it and then underwatered it and it eventually died because of my misunderstanding of how it wanted to be handled.

Now, when Jake was born one of my best friends brought an orchid to the hospital because she, like me, loves them. She gave me instructions and told me not to kill her. I told her I would try my best.

One of the things I had to learn was that orchids will bloom forever, but when they drop their flowers, you must prune them. The flowerless stems have to be cut back in order for new flowers to come. It usually takes about a year for a new shoot to form, but when it does, it is so satisfying.

Here's the hard part. I am now nurturing 6 orchids. My second one just started blooming with new flowers about a week ago. She's lovely. In the meantime, one of my newer ones dropped her last flower, and I hesitated to cut her stem because I thought, maybe, just maybe, she'll put out a new bud. So I waited. No new stem. This morning I cut her. Down to nothing.
Why do I write this. Well, I think there's a spiritual lesson here. So many times, God prunes me: he cuts back the things in my life that he knows are dead and lifeless. And it hurts. It's never fun to have something that is a part of you taken away, but ultimately those times are for my good. God wants me to bear good fruit and to produce something beautiful. Those flowers may not come overnight. As a matter of fact hey most certainly will not. It will probably take time for God to cultivate the things in me that he wants there, but the result is more beautiful than before and much more satisfying.

What is God doing in you?