REFLECTIONS FROM THE REARVIEW
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ

Lo and Behold

9/6/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
My wife puts old batteries in the drawer. There is no explanation for this. She expects somehow that when she retrieves them they will magically have regained their charge. I could make comments about her sense of logic. There is no precedent to expect that batteries once dead, will come to life again. I have at times ruminated that this kind of intrepid faith might be part of a mother’s tool kit necessary for the raising up of children. 

She did something of the same thing with a plant. It was getting unruly and too leafy, overgrown. My wife took some shears to it, and carved the whole thing back. Drastically. Then she carved some more. Maybe she was tired of picking up the dried leaves from the floor, but at any rate the tree ended up denuded and bereft. All that was left once shorn, was a thick stalk, cut off. It looked none too good, stark and ridiculous as if searching for a fig leaf to hide its shame. “It needed to be pruned”, she said.  

Then as if to add insult to injury, she put the plant downstairs and out of the way. Over the course of the winter we didn’t water it. We forgot all about it as it sat there in the dark. Once spring rolled around my wife, like her trick with the batteries, put the plant outside again without skipping a beat. It looked dead as a doornail. I finally put in my two cents worth…“there is no way that plant is going to ever sprout again.”

Not to be put off, my wife asked an old neighbour who is a plant maven. He looked at the dead-as-a-doornail plant, and weighed in, trying to be kind. “Did you water the plant?” he asked. “Hmmmmmm. Did you do ANYTHING to keep it alive? All winter long without water you say? I don’t think you’ll see anything out of this plant but you can try. I don’t believe that plant will grow. You had better get another”

My wife listened in her own peculiar way and then continued to water the plant. She put it outside in the sun like nothing had happened. She tended to it like a living plant every single day and - what do they say, expect the unexpected? Somehow, from out of nowhere emerged signs of life. A tiny green sprig. A patch of green. You could have knocked me over with a feather. It’s strange that after such a drastic pruning that life could be sustained, but that’s what happened. 

We don’t like pruning very much. Sooner or later in life, will come a fallow season where you will get the drastic treatment. It’s that other part of life that nobody likes and does not make for good cocktail conversation. It includes all those unpleasant feelings that are the fruit of being human, and the added sting that it will indeed rain on the just as well as the unjust. You are not immune. It will not leave you in a good temper. It might put you out of action for a while like our plant banished to the darkness of the basement. It may destroy your faith. 

Still, the plant made me sit up and take notice. I think I would class its resurrection as a minor miracle.  I have no explanation for the plant coming to life again, except that it verifies the notion that what doesn’t kill you might actually cure you. On a philosophical level, there’s not much you can say to make bad stuff better, especially if you are the one going through the bad stuff. It is nonetheless instructive that there might eventually be some light at the end of the tunnel. The plant proved it. I am encouraged. You many find me covertly sneaking dead batteries into the drawer yet, just to see if they might come to life again. Apparently my incredulity has been mistaken.

There are times in life when we witness the impossible, and at such junctures it may be appropriate to dust off an arcane expression, “Lo, and behold”. We have heard that turn of a phrase before. It is extracted from ancient texts which speak of signs and wonders. Lo, and behold. Perhaps better put as “Open your eyeballs, you fool. Take a look. Look, and see. Now do you believe?”

There are those great “shalls” of Scripture. They sound pretty sure. “And the virgin shall be with child… and the desert shall bring forth life… and the dead shall be raised incorruptable… and the lion and the lamb shall lie down together… and the crooked way shall be made straight… they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” All such things are written especially for the sceptic. “Lo and behold…” expect the impossible. Why? Because such mysteries, even the plant knows. You don’t believe me? Take a look. Lo and behold.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    UNCOMMON
    ​THOUGHTS

    ...about common things. 
    ​

    Categories

    All
    Accidental Story
    Activist
    Adjusting The Recipe
    Adult Admission
    A Flannery O'Connor Moment
    After The Tiger
    A High Christology
    A Little Bit Redneck
    A Little Lower Than The Angels
    All About Widgets
    Allah Wallahi
    Al Low Vs The Man
    All Saints
    A Long List Of Thank Yous
    Amazing Grace
    A Month Of Sundays
    An Offer You Can’t Refuse
    Antique
    A Pile Of Wood And A Plan
    Are We There Yet?
    Artifact
    At Hand
    Attending To Beauty
    At War
    Bad-Ass Outlaw
    Bad Faith
    Badlands
    Baked Boiled Or Fried?
    Balcony Lady
    Beautiful By Design
    Beauty For Ashes
    Being Human
    Belial
    Beneficence
    Beware Of Men Who Cry
    Big Buts Of The Bible
    Blessed Are The Pew Warmers
    Bound For Beauty
    British Invasion
    Bronte Oak
    Bucket List
    But If Not
    But Is It Sandable
    But Is It True?
    Buyer Beware
    Camp Of The Unknown God
    Carlton The Delivery Man
    Chaos
    Cherry Top
    Class Monitors And Safety Patrols
    Clothing Optional
    Cloud Of Witnesses
    Contra Mundum
    Couldn't Not
    Counting The Cost
    Covid Cut
    Creed
    Crucified Man
    Dangerous
    Dangerous Chemicals Of My Youth
    Dieu Et Mon Droit
    Different Drum
    Distressed
    Doing The Lord's Work
    Do It Yourself
    Do-Over
    Do Something!
    Dreaming And Doing
    Edifice
    Egging Armour Hill
    Even As I Am Known
    Even Me
    Even Stranger Things
    Fallow Season
    Family Bible
    Family Business
    Fellowship Of The Brush
    Field Of Faith
    First World Chair
    Fit As You Go
    Fixing The Machine
    Flawed People
    Flock Of Angels
    Follow The Money
    For A Time Such As This
    Fortissimo!
    French Horn
    From A Distance
    Frozen Man
    Funny Words
    Genetic Lottery
    Gifting
    Good Bones
    Good God Almighty
    Good Government
    Good Luck Skippy
    Gott Mit Uns
    Greatest Is Love
    Gross Anatomy
    Grunt
    Haka!
    Hammer And Tong
    Hands And Eyes
    Happy Rooster
    Hearing Voices
    Hello My Juan
    Helping God Show Off
    Hidden In The Secret Place
    High Dudgeon
    History Bites
    Hockey Tape And Rubber Bands
    Holy Disorder
    Home Economics
    I AM
    I Cannot Help You
    I Could Be Wrong
    I Dare You
    Idiots
    If You Build It
    If You Get There Before I Do
    Im Khalil
    Impossibly Cute
    In A Strange Land
    Incarnation
    Influencer
    In My Own Time
    Inner FIfteen Year Old
    In The Details
    In The Usual Manner
    Invader
    Judge Not
    Just A Few Words
    Justice
    Just In Our Own Time
    Just Like God
    Keep Calm And...
    Keeper
    Keeping House
    Keeping On Keeping On
    KJV
    Knock Yourself Out
    Kumbaya
    Kybo
    Lamentations
    Lemonade
    Less Is More
    Let Me Count The Ways
    Let's Go RIde A BIke
    Linked In
    Little Boxes
    Liturgy
    Lo And Behold
    Logos
    LOL
    Looking Back On The Forward Looking
    Looking For Some Real Good News
    Lord Jesus It’s A FIRE
    Lorem-ipsum-dolor
    Lost-and-found
    Luck Of The Stable
    Magical
    Make-a-baby-laugh
    Make It Nice
    Maker
    Maker’s Mark
    Ma-pitom
    Marbles-in-spring
    Measure Of A Man
    Memory Box
    Men In Loincloths
    Men's Barber Shop
    Middle Ground
    Middleman
    Mistakes All In
    Montreal Spice
    More
    Morse Code
    Mosh Pit
    My Neighbour
    Myth Of Sisyphus
    My Wife The Movie Star
    Name Calling
    Natural
    Neighbour
    New Day
    New Wine
    Next To Godliness
    Next Year Country
    No Fancy Diagram Needed
    No King But Caesar
    None Deserving
    North Of Ground Level
    Nothing Particularly Important
    Nothing Personal
    Not Waiting For Godot
    No Wonder
    Oak
    One Coffee At A Time
    One Smart Farmer
    One Thing
    On Richard Rohr
    On The Lam
    On Writing Clearly
    Ordinary Time
    Out Of Egypt
    Over And Again
    Paint Over That
    Paper Boy
    Particularity
    Particulate Matter
    Part Of The Tradition
    Pater Noster
    Patina
    Pelagian
    Perfect
    Perfect Crime
    Perfect Ride
    Philosemite
    Pilate's Dilemma
    Pinky Swear
    Place At The Table
    Playing Favourites
    Pop-a-corn!
    Potato War
    Preaching Parrot
    Predators
    Prince
    Print Shop
    Prisoner Of Jesus Christ
    Proof Text
    Psalm 1
    Psalm 19
    Put Away The Books
    Putting Up The Lights
    Reduce Reuse Recycle
    Restoration
    Rosemary And The Drug Dealers
    Sandwich
    Say My Name
    Scars
    Second Naiveté
    Seeing Red
    Seven Sixty-Five
    Shouting From The Areopagus
    Shrove-tuesday
    Silent-witness
    Small-c
    Small-graces
    Sore-afraid
    Squat
    Starting With What Is True
    Street Food
    Superstar
    Take-a-punch
    Takedown
    Talking-head
    Talking Your Parents Down From The Ledge
    Telling-the-story
    Thanksgiving
    The-best-for-last
    The Bliss Of Ignorance
    The Church Invisible
    Thecrossingking
    The Evil Day
    The-general
    The Great Mystery
    The-joys-of-hash
    Themysteryofthecheshirecat
    The-particularity-of-place
    The-quickening
    Therefore-choose-life
    The Table-ness Of A Table
    The Way
    Though One Be Raised From The Dead
    Thoughts On Sixty
    Three Jews And A Gentile
    Thrice Wise
    Throwing The Spaghetti Against The Wall
    Timeless
    Time Vs Time
    Tim Falladay
    Tims No More
    Tonto And Me
    Touching Stones
    Trevor’s Super Bad Day
    Trick Key
    Tubafore!
    Unbelievable
    Under A Bush? HELL NO!
    Uninvited
    Unspectacular
    Use Gently
    Watching Paint Dry
    Wayside Chapel
    Weaker Sex (?)
    We Stand On Guard For Thee
    We Were Waiting
    What Are You Prepared To DO?
    What Lazarus Knew
    When Cows Fly
    When Odd Becomes Interesting
    Why I Still Like Cowboys
    Witness
    Woke
    Wood Show
    Woodworking Lessons In Empathy
    Words
    Words... The Right Tool
    Worthy Adversary
    You And Me And Rob

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
Picture
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ