RESURRECTION PLANT

Last year while we were strolling through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens we stopped in the gift shop and I purchased a plant called the resurrection plant. This plant was a dried up ball of leaves clumped into a small plastic bag. It had no apparent beauty or life nevertheless the thing that caught my eye was the description detailed on the little bag it said, "This dry plant now appears to be dead and lifeless. Simply place it in a shallow bowl of water and within twenty-four hours it will live and grow. If you wish you may let it dry up and then return it to water. The plant will come to life over and over again. They have been known to remain dormant for 50 years and come to life when put in water." When I got in I put the little package of dried up leaves in the corner of my draw and left it there.

I was just a little bit over 50 years old and I found myself walking hand in hand with you through the garden that day and it seemed that mysteries were beginning to unfold. We talked and listened and soaked in the spirit and nature all around us that day. I used to come to the botanical gardens on regular occasions throughout my adult life but that day was special mostly because I had not been there for a few years. You see I had been in a relationship for over 3 years that I had allowed to stifle me and became imprisoned in a self made tomb of despair. Slowly but surely the light within me had diminished from a flaming torch into a flickering faltering flame. The passion and creativity that was divinely set in me became so dormant that I felt as if a shell of a man. There was no power, no love or no stride in my step. What manner of a man have I become? What was this? I did not bother to cry out to God or my own inner-self because I had already given up and allowed the dark shroud that enveloped me cover my every direction of life and reason. There was no hope to the north, west, south or east of my horizon. I did not want it. I did not realize it then but in a sense I was like that resurrection plant. I was dormant and seemingly without any life at all.As we talked I began to remember how I would gather up a group of young folk in my ministry and in my neighborhood and bring them to the garden on walking tours. We would observe the fauna, smell the various blossoming fragrances that would fill the air and engage in where ever dialog would take us. Why did I lose my focus? Why did I stop? That walk, that stroll, that moment with you in that little green patch in Brooklyn brought me back into His Garden of Paradise and life's mysteries began to unfold. Holding your hand brought healing in the blink of an eye. God's anointing flowed from you right into my very being and rejuvenation and regeneration started taking up residence within my being. The love in you began to fuel my inner flame. Flame on! I was all torched up in an instant. Now this love that I am talking about was not the kind of love that we take to bed. It did not arouse the sensual man or fleshly tenancies of the mind. It came from the true source of the inner being and manifestation of God. He sent me and angel to touch the heart of my soul.

I was mortally wounded and left for dead. The enemy of my soul hovered over me like vultures over rotting carrion. The breath of life that originates from the Holy Spirit covered me and did not allow death and destruction to come near. The small almost incoherent pulse left in me was only the heart of God. He saved me from my own darkness, failure, faults, negativity, and sin for such a time as this. It has been many months since I placed that little bag with the dried up brown lifeless ball of leaves in the corner of my draw. Today I took it out and placed it in a little shallow dish of fresh water as instructed and set it on my alter with symbolic purpose and determination. As I poured the clear water in the dish I thought of how water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Yes, of water and the spirit and I was immediately taken to a heavenly realm. There I saw as I placed this dried up plant into the dish more than just dried up leaves I saw small brown and dried roots. These roots represented the connection to sustenance and life.

I was like this plant all dried up but with roots that were truly connected to the one and only true sustenance and life of the One and Only True Living God. As I got ready to throw the little plastic package that the plant came in away I noticed in little fine writing these words, "Water should be changed often so the plant will not become rancid." So then I shut the door to my room, took off all my clothes and played the music of my African drums. I took the bottle of Holy Water from my alter and poured it over my head and let it flow down my naked body as I began to dance the dance of praise to my One and Only True Living God, my Savior, my Redeemer, the Lover of my soul....One LOVE