An unexpected snowstorm in January froze the gigantic sago palm in the front yard. It was clearly overgrown as it was but we liked the privacy it provided us in the rocking chairs on the porch. I have never had a sago palm nor a green thumb to know what to do for it but this much I knew, it was dead. I researched it a little the way our grown kids have modeled modern research, which means we “googled” it. I learned that we needed to cut away the dead stuff which I did during Holy Week and then let Mother Nature take her course because the core is good and has life yet within it. Recently, Pedro decided it needed an even closer to the core pruning and did so while I was away visiting grandchildren. He had the swollen, punctured fingers to show for this painful, prickly effort but look at it now!
The pictures show the resurrection of the sago palm over the course of the past week. One of the photos shows it has sprung three offspring from the bottom of the trunk. It has been a joy to watch it evolve and I wonder how it will be different in size or stature. Like all good things in life, we must wait and see. Faith is the belief in what will be and the hope for things unseen. I believe it will be beautiful again and perhaps soon! May I, too, be like a sago palm, succumbing to a deep pruning to the core and rising up renewed…but without the three offspring please, been there done that!
”What Thou hast given, Thou canst take, and when Thou wilt new gifts can make. All flows from Thee alone; When Thou didst give it, it was Thine; When Thou retook’st it, ‘‘twas not mine. Thy will in all be done.” John Austin
”The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.” Job i.21
Snippets and Snatches 