Resiliency

I love jade plants.  I have a jade plant in my office that I have had since 1990.  Back then it was big and really healthy.  Over the years I have come so close to killing it.  There were times I had given it up for dead.  That jade plant just keeps coming back, maybe not as pretty and big as it used to be, but it is alive.

This little jade plant comes from a cutting on a big bush in California.  I cut a little piece off and let it dry out for a couple of days - no water.  I don't know too many plants that can survive being cut without water.  Jade plants can.  Just stick them in some good soil and wait.  This is my first time trying this and I'm amazed that this little plant is growing new leaves!

Ever know someone who is like a jade plant?  It's someone who can be cut, starved, mistreated and generally neglected, but still emerge intact.  He might be scarred or damaged, but he is alive and growing.

God will not give me more than I can endure.  Although I may be bruised, Jesus did not come to break me.  This was the message of Isaiah 42:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

I have put my Spirit upon him,

he will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry or lift up his voice,

or make it heard in the street; 

a bruised reed he will not break,

and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice.

I don't want to be a bruised reed or a dimly burning wick.  It scares me that God might test me.  I have to pray.  Hold on.  Be a jade.

cc

Advent Calendar - Day 9

Today is the feast of St. Juan Diego.  What does that have to do with Advent?  Well, nothing.  However, in preparing for the coming of Christ, St. Juan Diego, like Our Lady of Guadalupe (who we celebrate on December 12), believed the message God sent him.  Juan Diego, like all saints, are people we can look to for inspiration and example of what it means to live a life of obedience to God.

The story of St. Juan Diego is that of a simple man.  Born in the 15th Century in what is now Mexico, he saw a vision of a woman who identified herself as the Virgin Mary.  She told him she wanted a church built on the site in her honor.  Juan Diego went to the local bishop to make the request, but the bishop asked for evidence that the woman was actually the Virgin Mary.  Juan went back to the location of the first vision and Mary appeared to him again.  She asked him to go to the top of the hills and pick the flowers he would find there and take them to the bishop.  It was winter and the roses Juan Diego found on that hill were Castilian roses (not then grown in Mexico).  He gathered the roses and put them in his tilma, a traditional cloak.

When Juan Diego found the bishop he opened his tilma to show the bishop the roses as proof the vision was that of the Virgin Mary.  But the bishop didn't notice the roses which fell to the floor.  He was transfixed by the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that was on Juan Diego's tilma.  Needless to say, the bishop believed and a basilica was built on the site.  The tilma with the iconic figure of Our Lady of Guadalupe is framed on the wall in the basilica where you can see it today.

St. Juan Diego reminds me that God doesn't speak through the rich and powerful.  He (and His Blessed Mother) come to the humble, to the people who will listen to the message.  Isn't that consistent with the birth of a baby in an obscure location who turned out to be God?

He comes quietly in humble conditions.

CC