Sideways

A few of my sweet pea plants are growing sideways instead of upward. They should grab onto the supports and get taller. But they are not.

Did the weed cloth alter their growth? Were the supports not close enough? Were there not enough other plants nearby to force them upright? Why did they miss the nearby support and reach across the garden to the far one? Is this an unhealthy situation or just a different one? Is there someone or something to blame for this situation, and if so, is it me?

His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2

I gently encourage the plants to grab hold of a support and grow upward, but if I treat them too roughly, the fragile plants will break and die. It appears some of them have found other plants and together they are growing upward. Perhaps these plants need the additional exposure to sunlight from growing sideways, exposure they wouldn’t receive if they were growing with all the others.

The question becomes, can they still produce lying on the ground? If they can’t produce good fruit without growing as recommended, what is my response? Do I force them to conform to the support, even at the risk of damage? Do I trust they will find their own way to grow toward the sun? If the plant can successfully produce from its prone position, shouldn’t I encourage it to do so?

I notice that the young plants often grab onto each other instead of onto the sturdier supports I have provided. As long as some of them are clinging onto the supports, the entire crowd seems to be encouraged upward. Many find their own attachments to the supports in time. But if the young plants attach themselves to an unsupported plant, the entire bundle often falls to the ground. Gently, gently I encourage the plants to attach to the provided supports. I know they want to grow toward the sun; sometimes they just don’t know the way.

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

I am going to continue to water, talk to and love on my wayward sweet peas. I am going to provide supports for them at every turn, encouraging them to grab hold. I will encourage them to grow, but I will not, cannot, force them to grow in the manner I think may be best. They are growing; they are living, breathing plants – a gift from God. God may see fit to produce fruit in them where they lie. God may yet use them, like the blind man mentioned in John 9, to reveal God’s works. They may yet find their way to climb the supports and reach for the sun.

It may take a while. It may take a lifetime. And it could be me and not the sweet peas that are in the wrong. Maybe these sweet peas are showing me a different way to grow and thrive and produce. Maybe they are exposing more of themselves to the sun than the ones massed along the supports. I just have to trust that God has placed the desire to reach for the sun into the DNA of these little plants. I will do what I can; and I will wait on the Lord.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some may think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

Love is patient and kind. Love does not insist on its own way (I Cor.5-6). I hope the Holy Spirit is producing this fruit in me and you. Love on. Love strong. Love in Christ.

Betsy