Picking Wildflowers

I found a wildflower the other day on the ditch trail. I did what I probably wasn't supposed to: I picked it. I took it home and planted it in a pot with some soil. Then, I waited.

I had hoped that it would thrive, but....the next morning it was already wilting. It was bent over, droopy. So, I plucked it from the soil and put it in a cup of water, hoping that maybe it would sprout roots and I could plant it. But, nope.

I killed it.

I don't know much about wildflowers, if anything, except that they are beautiful. I now know not to pick them. They need certain things to be able to grow and thrive, and if you pick it, it won't have those things anymore.

And it will die.

As I was thinking about this today, I felt the Holy Spirit speaking.

We go along in life, having all we need to thrive and grow. But then, we decide we know what's best, or we decide we want something different. So we leave. We pluck ourselves out of the soil that has everything we need, so to speak, and we go plant ourselves somewhere else: somewhere less than what we had before.

And we die.

When I took the wildflower out of the right stuff it needed and put it in the wrong stuff, it died. When we are in Christ and in His Word and in all the things we need to be able to grow and thrive as Christ Followers, we live. We are beautiful. But, when we pick ourselves out of that, we wilt and die.

So, don't pick the wildflowers.