A watched fern doesn't grow

I have ferns coming up, and they’re fun to watch because they start out curled and then slowly uncurl as they get bigger. I was cleaning out the dead leaves and grass around the ferns over the weekend. I looked at them closely and recalled the film strips I was shown way back in kindergarten and first grade—the ones where they videotaped a plant and then fast-forwarded the clip so you could see the growth. My mind wandered to how I could do that with my digital camera...If I could do that. But no matter how long I stared at them, I didn’t actually see them grow while I sat out there. They did probably grow an eensy-teensy bit in that short hour that I sat by them though.

This morning I walked out to my car, and the ferns practically doubled in size over night. Maybe it’s the spring rain we got last night. I don’t know, but I was amazed!

My life feels like my ferns sometimes. I stare at it so closely and feel like I can’t see God moving. Where is He? What is He doing? And then I wake up one morning and unexpectedly see change, growth, challenge, opportunity...something. And I think...Wow. How did that happen?

I often get bogged down in details (which are not all bad!). Whether it be in editing work projects or refining relationships.( In meetings, I’m the one who rains on the brainstomers’ ideas...yeah, that’s all fine and good, but how exactly are we going to pull that idea from your brain and actually make it happen in terms of money, people power, resources, etc.? I want a minute, detailed breakdown, please.)

In a conversation with my momma recently, she told me that I was thinking short-term. I was being near-sighted. I needed to think bigger. Go longer. In essence, go for touchdown. Not short pass. It's so difficult for me to do that sometimes though.

I found some verses in Ecclesiastes (11:4-6, The Message translation) that act as a great reminder that we probably shouldn’t focus so hard on the details of our earthly lives, but rather think big-picture...think God, think heavenly. And chances are, if I do that, I’ll walk out every morning and be surprised by the growth in my own life, just like the growth in my ferns.

“Don't sit there watching the wind. Do your own work.
Don't stare at the clouds. Get on with your life.

Just as you'll never understand
the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman,
So you'll never understand
the mystery at work in all that God does.

Go to work in the morning
and stick to it until evening without watching the clock.
You never know from moment to moment
how your work will turn out in the end.”