Thoughts

Thoughts on New Life

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Have you ever felt like a part of your life was done for?

a relationship with someone you love

a job or career

the chance at true love

the willingness to go on

a friendship

your marriage

a second chance

your faith in God

your heart?

 . . .

N E W  L I F E

This plant lay dormant since 2010, meaning the flowers fell off and all it had was leaves for 5 years.

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I kept it around because I have a hard time throwing things away. Also, my sister has always gotten her orchids to bloom again, so I knew it was possible.

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The leaves looked pretty.

Would it ever bloom again?

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Then, as time went on, the leaves didn’t even look pretty. They turned yellow and fell off.

But more leaves grew.

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One day my daughter peeled each of the new leaves in half down the middle. You can still see one of them is peeled in half (on the bottom right). I was so mad.

Still, the plant sat on our mantle or on the computer desk. I didn’t even water it. I was waiting for it to die so I could throw it away.

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The woman who cleans my house watered it once a month.

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The leaves reached desperately toward the sunlight, eager to live.

One by one the broken, peeled leaves fell off and more new leaves grew.

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This year I made one change. I placed it in a new window, in a different room. The kitchen, as it turned out, was better for this orchid.

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And a new stem sprouted after 5 years.

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And within a month … here it is.

Just as it was made to be. Just gorgeous. This plant brings me so much joy.

More so because I thought it was done. I thought it was fruitless. But it was alive.

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I’m so glad I was wrong. I’m so glad I didn’t throw it away. Because this year this orchid proved to me the message of new life: new chances, new beginnings, hope, and beauty.

The very thing I thought was dead brought me so much joy.

Because I held on. I don’t always hold on. But this time I did.

. . .

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her,

I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?

–John 11:21-26

Chelsea Rotunno is the author of Goodnight to My Thoughts of You, a novel about life as a Christian teen searching for true love.

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