I
was out in the garden again, waiting for Grant to bring my lunch out to me. The wisteria
was still a mass of twigs, and I barely noticed it this day. Quietly but firmly
Jesus said to me, "Look at the wisteria vine." It was reminiscent of the
stories in the Bible when He spoke to his disciples and listeners preparatory to giving
them a spiritual lesson from something in nature. I looked.
"Yes,
Lord. I believe you said I will be better one day, just like that wisteria will
again be green and full of new growth."
Silence. The
words, "Look at the wisteria vine" were still in my mind, and I realised there
was more to know. I kept looking. I began to see an analogy. The wisteria
would not get green overnight. There would, however, be a definite turning point - a
time when the first buds would pop open. Then the growth would be swift and steady,
and before we knew it the vine would be green again. (Shortly after this I happened to see
a segment on wisterias on a garden show, and they made the comment that wisterias can be
real pests because their growth is so vigorous! Yes! I liked hearing that!)
I love analogies.
Just ask Grant. Give me a good analogy and I can thrive on it for weeks. My mind was
working overtime on this one. I saw a parallel between the way nutrition is stored
beneath the ground in the roots, much like we are rooted in God's love and draw up
sustenance through faith in His goodness, which enables us to grow and mature
spiritually. It was at about this stage that I remembered an incident involving our
cat, Jenny.
 I must start by saying Jenny is a sweet, dear,
lovely little cat.. she is cast in a devilish role in my story but it is pure acting!
Several days
earlier, we had caught her in the act of chewing buds off the wisteria and Grant had
stopped her.
In my present
state of mind I started to see an analogy in that! She was like the devil, who comes
to eat away at our faith with doubts - trying to ensure that we do not produce a crop of
good things in our lives.
Just as I was
about to call a stop to my 'analogising', Grant appeared with our lunch, and I started to
tell him what I believed God had shown me. When it got to the part about Jenny, I
decided that perhaps I had taken it too far with that one. I hesitated. I had just
said, "There was a bit about Jenny, but that was probably just me...", when
Grant interrupted and said, "Speak of the devil!" Jenny had jumped up
behind me onto a log. I was stunned!
I had asked God to
confirm to me in some way, that it was Him speaking to me about the wisteria, and this was
His sense of humour! In case you don't know, 'speak of the devil' is just a figure
of speech to say that someone you have been talking about has just turned up... but in
this case Jenny really was playing the part of the devil in the story.
You may recall
that I had been asking God for a solution to the problem of how to prepare the children
for whatever lay ahead in relation to my healing. This analogy was perfect! That
afternoon I took the girls outside and told them in parable form, just like Jesus had with
me, how I was going to get better, but it would be a gradual process like the regrowth of
the wisteria. As a final 'confirmation' of God's hand in this, Jenny popped up
behind me again, just as I was telling Jessie! I didn't tell Bianca-Rose that bit -
she tends to take things to heart a bit and would have taken it literally. I didn't
want her thinking I was casting aspersions on Jenny's character!
And what of August
6th? I just couldn't help it. I kept an eye on the wisteria vine. The morning
of the 6th, I went out and checked the wisteria. What do you think I found?
The first few dry, brown buds had burst open - it was the first day I had seen any green
on the vine. Surprised? I wasn't, but I was delighted.
Another delight
was that I had my first 'good' day after weeks of 'bad' days. And the run of good
days lasted ten days I think - a record. (Good days and bad days are a common feature of
ME - it just means that some days the symptoms are less or more bothersome, painful,
debilitating... Prior to this I had only ever had 2 good days in a row.)
The crop of
flowers on the wisteria that year was the best ever! Click here for a look!
Are you tired of
August 6th stories? How about a "Life begins at 40" story? Or a New
Year's Day breakthrough? There's even a 'seven years to get sick, seven years to get
better' one - that's a good one! They are all different ways of looking at one
event, actually.
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