Bird-of-Paradise

                                   Bird-of-Paradise

     We have endured a very snowy winter, with a major snow storm almost every week for a month, and three feet of snow on the ground now. This week, one of the bird-of-paradise plants cautiously presented two starting blooms, a very hopeful sign of spring to come.
     We have two large bird-of-paradise plants, standing five feet high and almost as wide. They did not begin that way though! Over thirty years ago, I gave my mother a tiny bird-of-paradise plant. When my parents moved to Indiana in 1980, she gave it back to me in a slightly larger form. It thrived, even surviving one winter, when we were away and the heating in the house failed. Many of the indoor plants froze, but that bird-of-paradise survived below freezing temperatures somehow.
     Over the years, it grew and grew, with help from my sons, who delighted in repotting it to larger and larger pots, that only they could move. Finally, when it outgrew a huge pot, they divided it into two separate plants.
     They discovered that by moving the plants outside for the summer, the summer sun nourished them, so that in the winter, they produced brilliant yellow, orange, blue flowers. Now that my sons are grown and "flown from the nest", they return to move the plants outside for the summer and inside for the winter. My mother passed away last November, but left us a treasure to remind us that she is now in (paradise)Heaven, because of her faith in the saving power of Jesus (Yeshua).
     As the plant needs to spend time in the sun to bring forth beautiful blossoms, so we must spend time in the presence of the "Son" Yeshua (Jesus) and our Heavenly Father by prayer, reading His Word and worship, to bring forth beautiful blossoms in our spirits and lives.