I have a plant called Donkey Ears. It gets its name because it grows long, leaf-like things that look like donkey ears! But that’s not the only interesting fact about this plant. New plants are germinated from the tips of each leaf, whether the leaf is in the dirt or not! I began to put little pots of soil under the leaf tips, and new plants started to grow! And when the plant grew for a time, I twisted the leaf slightly, and the new plant was on its own. Even if a leaf broke off or rotted away from the mother plant, the new sprout would continue to grow if replanted.

As I looked at this plant, I thought of human beings. Like each drooping ear searching for soil to reproduce, we have God’s grace to help us find our way, especially when survival seems impossible. As I helped each ear find fertile ground to sprout, we find strength in each other as we learn and grow together in a world that isn’t always the best that it can be. And the ear that rotted away from the original plant with a sprout on its tip? Just another way God shows us that brokenness is repairable; and that we can produce fruit no matter what life brings.

Isn’t God amazing in how he shows Himself in nature? Look around at His glory in the garden and remember that as amazing as nature is, you are even more precious!

About the author: Previously the priest at St. Francis of Assisi in Lake Placid for 21 years, Rev. Elizabeth L. Nelson is now the Priest at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in LaBelle.