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“Caring For New Plants”
Caring For New Plants
Wade Webster
It is the time of year when people are redoing their landscaping. Many are adding new plants and shrubs. Maybe, you are working on yours right now. Jennifer and I are. I would like to think that we are not the only ones with our hands in the dirt.
As you know, new plants are especially vulnerable. They need lots of tender love and care. In fact, they are not likely to survive without it. It seems to me that the same is true in the spiritual realm. New converts require lots of attention. Consider a few parallels.
New plants need room to grow. The instructions that come with new plants advise digging a hole for the new plant that is twice the size of the container that the plant is in when it is purchased. I don’t really like digging holes. That probably comes as no surprise. If I must dig a hole, I want to keep it as small and as shallow as possible. If left up to me, I would dig a hole no bigger than the container. However, a hole that size would leave no room for the new plant to grow. Though the plant might survive for a time, it would likely be sickly and soon die because it would have no room to grow. The same is true of new converts. They need room to grow. Unless they grow, they are not likely to survive for very long. We must do all that we can to help new converts to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3:18).
New plants require lots of water. For example, the watering instructions for a small tree suggest five gallons of water at the time of planting. Then, every day, for the next two months, the instructions suggest a gallon and a half of water. After two months, the watering decreases to a gallon and a half of water every two to three days. That is still a lot of water. That is still a lot of work. Without regular watering, the new plant is not likely to survive. In like manner, new converts require lots of watering. Paul understood this. To the saints at Corinth, Paul wrote, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor” (1 Corinthians 3:5-8). As you know, Paul planted many churches. He made it a point to go back and visit (water) them. Luke records, “And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (Acts 14:21-23).
New plants must be placed where they can thrive. Some plants need full sunlight, others . need partial sunlight, and a few need full shade. To thrive, and possibly to survive, plants need the right amount of sun. In like manner, new converts are placed in different places by God. Some need more light than others. We read, “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased…but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it” (1 Corinthians 12:18, 24).
As you know, we have several new converts at Bridgewater. Let’s make sure that we give them the space, the water, and the sun that they need to grow.
