The Gardener

I am a plant killer. For some reason, I cannot keep alive the gorgeous orchids that I have been given several times over. I suspect that it is not a lack of sunshine or the wrong temperature, but instead I think I have a problem with water. It takes a slow trickle, at just the right time for orchids to do well. Other, better gardeners than I, even know a trick about six ice cubes being the right amount of water for a thriving orchid. Others still can seem to stick an orchid in the crevice of another tree, and it seems to work just right. It seems to be this way in the life of faith, too. With God in one’s life, the steady, unfailing trickle or in another metaphor, our daily bread, it is enough to sustain us. We have what we need to thrive. Many of us wait to reach out to the church or cry out to God in prayer until we are spiritually parched-in a theological crisis. Our spirituality thrives, like the orchids, when we make ourselves available to God in prayer and connect regularly to other people of faith. God is faithful to water us like a garden with His water that never runs dry. 
 
In Christ, 
Rev. Elyse Milligan Nielsen