The Broken Branch

A few weeks ago I was picking some plumeria blossoms for the ladies in my hula group to wear in their hair.

(Wow. What a Hawaii-specific sentence that just was.)

All the flowers were pretty high up so I had to pull the limbs down towards myself to reach them, and I ended up accidentally pulling off one whole branch. Whoops.

So I took it home. At home I pulled off the flowers I wanted and thought about making some sort of arrangement with the remaining branch and leaves.

Then I noticed it was swarming with ants, so instead I screamed and threw the whole thing into the backyard.

Except the flowers, of course. I just rinsed the bugs off those so we could still wear them in our hair. (Shh... Don't tell my hula sisters.)

Anyways, I forgot about the branch until I was in the backyard with the twins and noticed it still blooming. I  was surprised, because I knew it had been a while since I'd tossed it back there.

I counted back to remember when my halau had danced.

(A halau is a hula dance group. See how you learn something new every day?)

I realized it had been more than two weeks since that branch had broken off the tree. But that thing was still industriously blooming away! I guess it was drawing from the sap it had stored and the buds it had already made.

But of course, I knew it wasn't going to last, separated from the tree like that. It was only a matter of time before that branch withered and died.

In fact, the branch was dead already; it just didn't know it yet. It had died the minute it broke from the tree.

That branch was in denial. Although it was still working hard to bear its beautiful blossoms, all its effort was wasted while it was apart from the tree. It was busy busy busy, and it appeared from the outside to be healthy, but inside it was dead already.

Have you ever met any people like that?

Have you ever been a person like that? I have.

John 15:5 (Jesus said,) “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing."

Lord, help me to stay connected to You, the true vine, and not spin my wheels trying to perform through my own efforts. Amen.