Frozen
Frozen
I should have covered them. Why didn’t I imagine that a twenty-three-degree night would turn a half-dozen tropical(!) variegated ginger plants into something resembling well-cultivated straw? Two years before I’d struggled to drape these same plants when a hard freeze was predicted, and in spite of my clumsy efforts, they survived the frost. Not so this time. I left them naked—and was surprised to see how quickly they surrendered, flash frozen, to the bitter cold.
We are not impervious to the elements either. A harsh word, neglect, illness, loss, rejection—all of these can “flash freeze” our souls and deaden our hearts.
Naked to these elements, we wither. But willingly exposed to the sovereign hand of God, we thrive. “In this state of self-abandonment,” writes Jean-Pierre de Caussade, “in this path of simple faith, everything that happens to our soul and body, all that occurs in all the affairs of life, has the aspect of death. This should not surprise us. What do we expect? It is natural to this condition. God has his plans for souls and he carries them out very successfully, though they are well-disguised.” What sorts of disguises? De Caussade continues, “Under the name of ‘disguise’ are such things as misfortune, illness and spiritual weakness.” The very things that leave us frozen! “But,” says de Caussade, “in the hands of God everything flourishes and turns to good. He arranges the accomplishment of his highest designs by means which deeply wound our natural feelings.”a
And this he does (I must often remind myself!) for his own glory and my highest good.
My ginger will come back. I consulted a local gardening source and learned that I should cut away the dead leaves and leave the stalk intact. My front flowerbed won’t be attractive. Not for a while. But come spring I’ll be looking for the tiny green shoots that whisper life and resurrection to a formerly frozen landscape.
The love of the LORD remains forever with those who fear him.
Psalm 103:17
a Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2012), 95; emphasis added.
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