How to grow luck in a blue and white plate

Many years ago a friend and I went into a Plant store, we were buying a plant for my mother's birthday, an orchid if I remember clearly, she loves orchids! Whilst we were there, the owner of the store pointed us in the direction of a plant, she said..'oh you girls can get this one also- it's a Chinese lucky bamboo, it will bring you luck!' Since luck was apparently in short supply, I decided I might as well grow it. The 'lucky' bamboo was sitting in a little blue and white plate. I looked curiously at the plate and she read my mind. 'Yes, you can keep it in that, just water it every other day, and if you keep it in that plate, it won't really grow very big or anything.- perfect house plant.'

So we set off, with an orchid and growing luck in a blue and white plate.

Now, as much as I tried to grow luck, it soon started to look very unlucky. Hapless. Sad. Half-dead. I was managing, quite successfully I might add, to kill a plant with the name 'lucky.' I wasn't quite sure if killing a lucky bamboo would bring me seven years worth of bad luck or the plant was just unlucky to end up with me, who up to this point was only successful in growing hips! I probably would go with the latter.

A few months later, we had a hurricane in Jamaica, I don't quite remember the name of it but it was strong enough to bring down a Lime tree we had in the back yard, which left, well...a hole in the ground and an idea in my heart.

I took my half dead un-'lucky' bamboo plant and without any kind of fanfare, stuck it into the hole left vacant by storm force winds. It thrived, it grew and now it's more than 6 feet tall.

Sometimes, things have to uprooted for a better thing to grow.

Attempts were made to control the height of the tree but wherever there was pruning, there was new growth, there was no stopping this here lucky bamboo. It soon had shoots all over its base, and then Nature spoke to me.


John 15, 2-5: 'Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.3Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.'

The Lucky Bamboo said:

I was a baby living on luck, the hope that someone would water me, put me in the perfect light, perfect temperature , perfect container. I was at the mercy of luck. I sat in a blue and white exotic looking plate, and there I did wait, for the girl that only grew hips, with well intentioned lips, that spoke of how despite her efforts, I look like I was sure to die.

The Hurricane said: 

I am merely passing by, Meteorologists chart my course, on my journey from coast to coast. It is not my intention to kill, but to do what is God's will. I will uproot, I will fill, I will water, I will send chills down spines, I will be a farmer's nightmare and a Store owners' thrill.

The Lime tree said:

This is it. I am dead. 

 My Heart said:

My heart from which everything flows, thought, I wonder what the future holds- will this Lime tree grow back, even through its heart breaking crack? The lucky bamboo is almost dead, so I might as well plant it in the Lime tree's stead. 

And the Lord said:

There is no need for luck when you are planted in me, for though you were dead and dying, in me you will have life, and life more abundantly. You will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bears fruit in its season. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.

I say:

Look around, look up, look down, where are you planted? Are you at the mercy of others? Uproot some things, even though your heart might break. Plant new things, things in and around you that you or others gave up for dead. There is no need for a farming degree, just a will to be free. Don't buy fertilizer, don't go around searching for water, just abide in Him and watch yourself grow like the Cedar in Lebanon.

I am curious just to see how tall this tree will become; interestingly, remembering its original size, my mind would never have allowed itself to imagine what it has now become (it is now over 6 feet tall) - and isn't that a glorious outcome?

Ephesians 3:20 - Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us...