Given June 13th, 2021 in the Provo, Utah 228th Ward
So, everything happens for a reason. At least that’s what they say. I’ve had a pretty blessed life, but even in the midst of those blessings are things that cause me to question why. Things I don’t really understand, and maybe they are insignificant, but I still wonder why.
Today I want to talk to you a little bit about houseplants. For anyone who knows me, the topic of houseplants is not surprising. My parents have always loved gardening, and they passed that love on to me. What started as a few indoor plants, has now grown into a jungle. I confess that I am one of those people who even has an Instagram for my houseplants. Being surrounded by plants has been a comfort to me during this stressful time of my life.
So, now that you all know I’m a crazy plant lady, I want to tell you a few things that I have learned about plants that can totally apply to people too. Pinterest will tell you: “Don’t forget to drink water and get some sun. You’re basically a houseplant with more complicated emotions.”
Here is some of what I have learned from plants:
Imperfections are normal, and sometimes beautiful
Growth can come when you least expect it.
Every plant is different and has different needs.
A good plant can come from anywhere
Sometimes pests come and you have to get rid of them
Love is important for growth
As cheesy as all this sounds, there is gospel truth in those plant lessons. You can probably recognize some of the gospel principles. Divine nature, charity, individual worth, and repentance to name a few. And I think that’s pretty amazing.
This brings to mind the church video called “the Will of God” with Elder Christofferson’s talk about the currant bush. In the video, Elder Christofferson references a talk by Hugh B. Brown called “God is the Gardener.”
This talk, given at BYU in 1968 by Elder Hugh B Brown says, “You sometimes wonder whether the Lord really knows what he ought to do with you. You sometimes wonder if you know better than he does about what you ought to do and ought to become. I am wondering if I may tell you a story that I have told quite often in the Church. It is a story that is older than you are. It’s a piece out of my own life, and I’ve told it in many stakes and missions. It has to do with an incident in my life when God showed me that he knew best.”
To briefly sum up, Hugh B Brown bought a farm and there was a giant, overgrown currant bush on the edge of the property, with no fruit. He knew a little about pruning so he cut it down to all stumps. When he was done, there seemed to be little tears coming out of each of the cut stumps, and he thought he heard the bush say, “How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”
Hugh B. Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’”
His story goes on, but I’d like to share my own story, of a time on my mission, where I had to learn that God knows best.
It was the end of my mission. I was about to finish training a greenie and had 2 transfers left. I thought I knew the perfect ending for my mission, I had it all planned out and it was going to happen. I would finish training, leave the area I had been in for almost 6 months, and finish my mission strong in a new area for a perfect amount of time and with the perfect hard working companion. I bet God laughed and laughed at that.
The last week of the transfer, my companion and I decided that we were going to have the best week ever. We planned it--wrote it down in our planners and everything. Then, of course, everything went wrong. First, another sister came to stay with us through an emergency transfer for the weekend. She was not the most obedient of missionaries and it kind of felt like we were dragging her around. She left after a couple days and we thought it was over. Wrong. Another emergency transfer, this time with another greenie from the zone next door. Apparently, some things had gotten out of hand and she needed somewhere else to go, so she came to stay with us for the week. I was like wow, this is definitely not the best week ever, but it’s fine because in a week I'll be transferred, and I’ll get a perfect companion in a perfect new area and I’ll put all this behind me. (Guess what didn’t happen).
A few days before the transfer, President Silcox came to our zone to do routine interviews. I was still waiting to hear about transfers, but I was getting this feeling like I was not going to get what I had been praying for: which was an obedient, hard working companion to help me finish my last transfers strong. My fears were realized when President Silcox asked me to stay... stay with the emergency transferred companion, the troublemaker, the greenie, and to top it off I’d be staying in the area that I had been in for 6 months, that I was tired of….I told him I would stay, but my heart wasn’t in it. He then told me something I will never forget... He said he knew what I had been praying for, but that it wasn’t time yet. He told me it would come…but not yet. I knew that God had heard my prayers, but He had a different, better, plan for me.
Just because I knew that God had a plan for me didn’t make that transfer any easier. It took me a couple of weeks to get over myself and start focusing on the work again instead of my prejudiced assumptions of my new companion. But I learned and grew just as much in that single transfer as I had in my entire mission before that. We saw miracles happen, not so much with our friends we were teaching, but in ourselves.
Before that transfer, I thought I had learned everything I needed to know. I was like the currant bush in the beginning of the story. I thought I was doing great and growing and that there wasn’t anything else I needed to do or be. Then I got cut down, and I asked God why? For too long I didn’t understand, for those first couple weeks I refused to understand, thinking that I still knew better and everything would have been perfect if things had just happened the way that I wanted them to--…that it was too hard…and I was too tired…so why did it have to happen this way? But now I can say, to the Gardener of our lives, to my Heavenly Father, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down, for caring enough about me to hurt me. Thank you, Mr. Gardener.’
I had so many more lessons to learn, that I never could have learned without that amazing companion that I didn’t even want but came to love. My last transfer I got my wish, I moved areas and was with the most obedient and hardworking companion I had ever seen, and she walked me to the bone and I finished my mission strong. I know God answers prayers. Maybe not in the way we think or want, or when we want, but we’re better for it.
So, what does all this have to do with my plants? People are like houseplants but with more complicated emotions, remember? If people receive the right care, love, and support, they will thrive, just like plants. That happened with me and my companion that one transfer, and even after everything that happened in 2020, it’s happening now. Most of us, if not all, got cut back in some way in the last year, but we are growing back, slowly but surely. We are learning and becoming exactly who our Heavenly Parents intend for us to become. I’m still learning how to be thankful for all my experiences, good and bad, but through it all I know God loves me. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and He loves me.
I strive to be like Nephi when he said to the Spirit of the Lord, “I know that [God] loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.” (1 Nephi 11:17). The first thing I know is that God loves ALL of His children. I also know that with Christ, nothing is impossible. Things are working out exactly as planned.
Hugh B. Brown later says, “I wanted to tell you that oft-repeated story because there are many of you who are going to have some very difficult experiences: disappointment, heartbreak, bereavement, defeat. You are going to be tested and tried to prove what you are made of. I just want you to know that if you don’t get what you think you ought to get, remember, “God is the gardener here. He knows what he wants you to be.” Submit yourselves to his will. Be worthy of his blessings, and you will get his blessings.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 reads, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
And I love what it says in the New Living Translation: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”
I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows me, and who has a plan for me, greater than anything I could imagine.
Recently Elder Uchtdorf said, “In a way, we are seeds. And for seeds to reach their potential, they must be buried before they can sprout. It is my witness that though at times we may feel buried by the trials of life or surrounded by emotional darkness, the love of God and the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will bring something unimaginable to spring forth.”
I want to finish with a quote from my grandma, who passed away 2 years ago this week. She had a blog with some amazing stories. I won’t share the whole story, but I love her testimony of our Father’s love.
She says, “Have you ever been blessed with a miracle? I was blessed with one not long after we were baptized. When it happened I knew that absolutely, somehow, from another place not of this sphere, someone cared enough about me to actually step in.”
After sharing her story of this miracle, she concludes with her testimony, “When I look back after all these years my heart fills with gratitude. I think of some of the lessons that very miracle taught this raggedy old convert. He IS our Father. He knows us and our struggles. He loves us. After we’ve done all we can, help will come. If we try to understand what’s right and do the right thing, help will come. We are not alone.
Miracles happen.”
Brothers and Sisters. I add my testimony to hers. God is good. I know this church is true. I know that if we study the words of the prophets, ancient and modern, we will come closer to God and be more like Jesus Christ. I know that all things testify of Christ. I know that if we keep our eyes open we can find important eternal truths all around us, even in the midst of a bunch of houseplants. And just like houseplants need water to live, we need the Living Water, even Jesus Christ.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
