Hairy – Lessons from a Bush!

One of the things I talk about in my book is a plant in my yard. We call him, “Hairy.” When you look at the photos of him, you’ll see why.

Several years ago the Lord showed me how various plants in my yard declare His glory. It was really neat – I’d never really thought about it before. Then we got to the New Zealand Tea Tree near the front door.

I sensed Him say, “You know, I meant for that plant to grow along the ground.”

“Yes, I know,” I replied, “but I’ve seen plants like this one that were beautiful trees.”

“How’d that work out for you?” He asked.

“Not so hot, as You can see.”

God lovingly used that tree to teach me about people. You see, He’d watched me stake up, wire branches, and prune in an effort to get my “horizontalis” variety to stand upright and be like what I wanted it to be.

I do this with people, too. I push them around, put them in awkward stances, and try to trim off the parts of them that don’t fit my image of what they could be. The problem with my plan is that it’s not my place to do so. God has a design in mind for each and every person on the planet, and it is not up to me to define them.

The pictures show what I ended up with…Hairy looks like Cousin It on a really bad hair day!

The Lord used my feeble attempts at Bonsai to teach me that if I were given the opportunity to change people into what I wanted them to be, they would end up very much like Hairy.

This tree is so ugly that I’d like to take it out and put something else in its place. However, I’ve decided that having this reminder right outside my front door is probably better. I look at him, think about someone I think I should change, and say, “Never mind!”