Pages

Wife Life | The Little Ivy

Monday, September 1, 2014


This little ivy has been with us since the very beginning. I remember it sitting in a cup of water on top of JT's refrigerator growing roots when we were dating. Since then, we have watched it grow and mature, leaf by leaf, as we ourselves were in the season of preparing for marriage and walking into that life together. We put it in soil when we moved to our first home, and there it grew even more. I don't know about you guys, but I get really excited when plants grow new leaves. It's still a miracle to me.

This last time we moved, the plants got left in the car a little longer than they should have. (We'll blame it on a spontaneous post-move afternoon nap.) When it finally got rescued from the August heat intensive greenhouse, some of the leaves were a little burnt. We thought we had really hurt it. But we clipped off the dead stuff, gave it some fresh water and sunlight, and just yesterday found several new leaves growing. You could have peeled me off the ceiling I was so excited. I mean I know this is kind of how plants work, but STILL.

This morning I was reminded of how much of a reflection that is of our relationships -- in marriage and friendship. It's easy to feel like we really messed things up bad. We said the wrong thing, we were neglectful, insensitive, impatient, unloving. It happens. But what we are forgetting is that even in those times, grace abounds beyond what we can muster up. New life grows in places that at one time seemed really dark and hopeless. God works that out in us and we work that out in each other. We prune, refresh, apologize, take some time, and out of that comes the new leaves.

We love the little ivy because it reminds us of our time together. Our new leaves growing, our need for forgiveness and grace to abound, the necessary pruning process, and the excitement when new life springs forth. The reminder that we need to be attentive, take care of what we've been given because it is special and holy and a gift. That plant, assuming we don't REALLY kill it, will be with us for the long road ahead and I hope that continues to be a reminder of the abundance we've been given.

2 comments:

  1. What a lovely and accurate way to describe the growth of a relationship!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just found this post, Erin. Thank you for such a beautiful Sunday morning reflection, sharing how creation mirrors life wisdom to us. You, Jeremy, the ivy----"priceless" and filled with God's grace. xo, aj

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment! I read and appreciate every single one.

Proudly designed by Mlekoshi playground