Prosperity

There is a little bamboo plant that I had put near a window in my apartment in December of 2009 when it was given to me by someone I worked with at the time as a Christmas gift. It was planted in water and anchored by rocks without any soil, and the glass container it was planted in read “prosperity.” At the time I was very happy to receive it – the man who gave it to me was a born again Christian, and he’d bought several of them for different people and he said that he’d prayed to see which one was meant for which person. At the time I was not feeling at all prosperous, and I felt this was an encouragement to me that the prosperity that God promises to us was a promise I could count on. That small gift and the thought behind it helped me to begin to see prosperity in a new way – that it has more to do with what we feel in our spirit than what we see in our bank account, and that we can be prosperous without being wealthy financially at all.

Psalm 1:1-3 tells us, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.” The image of the bamboo planted in water brings this Psalm to my mind, and what I saw this morning when I looked at the plant brought more encouragement that my heart and soul needed.

The bamboo plant prospered happily for a long time, but then last winter its leaves began to grow old and die back, and I wasn’t sure how long it was meant to last. Bamboo grows very easily, and if I had planted it outside it might have taken root and grown much larger by now, but in its little glass container without any soil I thought it might eventually wither and die. I wasn’t sure what to do with it when I saw the leaves turning brown, and I thought perhaps I’d plant it in the spring or summer months, but this year’s weather has been so confusing for plants that I thought it might be more dangerous to put it out into the colder than seasonal weather in the spring, and then the hotter than normal weather of the summer came and I just let it stay where it was because at least it would be somewhat protected. At some point a few weeks ago I noticed that it really was looking as if it was at the end of its life cycle, but I continued to add water when I watered my other plants as I don’t like to give up on a plant until it’s absolutely necessary. I’ve had other surprises in the past, and have found that sometimes plants that I have thought were completely lifeless have come back to life and thrived again.

This morning when I was watering the plants in the window where the bamboo plant is, I saw when I lifted it up to add its water that it had started to grow fresh green shoots at the bottom of the original shoots that had seemed dried and brown. And so my bamboo plant is prospering once again, in a season of harvest when we don’t normally expect to find new life springing up. As this plant had such meaning for me when it was originally given, I knew that the Lord was speaking something very special for me to know in my own life and to share with others.

When we look at Psalm 1:1-3, there are specific words that stand out to me that are echoed in the experience of this little bamboo plant. The first word we read is “Blessed,” and the psalmist goes on to speak about the person who is blessed – one who does not walk in the way of the wicked and who does walk in the way of the Lord. The idea is expanded to describe that blessing, that this person “is like a tree planted by streams of water.” There are times in our lives when we will feel we are in a dry season, times when it seems that the blessing of God is not over our lives, times when we feel that He is not near even though He is. The bamboo plant is a reminder of the presence of God no matter how we are feeling or what we see in our own lives at the current moment, as I continued to nurture and water it even as it was going through a dry season and did not appear to be thriving at all. The next part of the passage reads, “which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” There may be a dying back in our lives – things that we need to shed in order to continue to grow to the next level that God is bringing us to. The bamboo plant began to lose its earlier leaves in preparation for the new shoots that were going to grow. And finally we read, “whatever they do prospers.” Here of course is our promise of prosperity – and promises of God are always true as He is always faithful to bring them to pass. Even as we may be in a dry season, a season of growth and change that may not feel comfortable as we shed the old to make room for the new, we will still have the promise that whatever we do will prosper – not just something that we do, not just something maybe in the future, but whatever we do, right here and right now in the midst of the trial or the storm or the dry season that we are facing.

If there is something in your life that you need to let go, know that God will bring new life from the place where the old has been. If you are feeling like God is not near, that He is not caring for you in the place of struggle where you are, know that He continues to give His life giving water to sustain you and that the new growth that comes from this time will be a great blessing. When you are wondering what next and where and why and how, know that in the place where you are you can still prosper as you wait on the Lord to fulfill His word over your life. Just as the bamboo plant needed to go through its own particular cycle, so each one of us has our own pattern of growth and change and renewal. Be patient with yourself and know that God’s timing is always perfect, and that He will bring you to the place where He has promised in all the fullness of the promises He has made to you.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan