A Revival of Being
by Paul Romejko
I never would have dreamed that I would move four times in four months (with three of those moves occurring within one month). I put 95 percent of my belongings into storage during my first move. That made the subsequent moving around logistically simpler but no less stressful and daunting.
I sold my condo just before I found out I had to take what turned into a nine-week medical leave of absence from work. I didn’t find a new condo in the limited amount of time I had before the new owner took possession of what was my home for the past nine years. Thankfully, I didn’t have any pets but I had more than a few houseplants. Some of the plants ended up in the care of my friend Neil and his wife. My friend Jim rescued the rest of them. By his own admission, Jim is not a houseplant person. He gave them the care that he could but the only place he had room for these tropical plants was a cool second story room in his building.
My most recent move was to a less temporary, but still temporary, studio apartment across the street from Holy Covenant (coincidence?). With the limited space of my one-room apartment, I hoped that Jim would hold on to my plants but he needed the space they occupied in his house for other things.
Unfortunately, a few of my less hardy plants died (in early November they had spent a few days in Jim’s van, parked in his unheated garage) but most survived. There were two pots with what looked like dead amaryllis plants in them. The leaves had died down to limp brown stalks. But, when I looked closely, I noticed a trace of green remained in the bulb portion of the plants. Despite my fear that they may be too far gone, I trimmed off the dead leaves from the bulbs, placed them by a bright window and began to water them regularly. For a time I questioned the effort I was putting into this. While part of me was saying it was hopeless and I was wasting my time, part of me was urging me to stay at it and keep the faith.
About a week passed before flat green tongues slowly began emerging from one bulb and then the other. With time the leaves grew long, deep green and graceful. Then about two weeks ago, a flower stem began to grow out of the center of one of the plants. Today the fast-growing flower burst open screaming red.
God was giving me a Christmas amaryllis and not an Easter lily. Presented with such beauty, I refrained from questioning God’s schedule for the appearance of seasonal flowers in my life.
Some life events seem to crucify our spirit: the grief of a broken relationship, the death of someone dear to us, the shock of a sudden illness, the loss of our independence to an accident or illness, the decimation of a life by the insanity of an addiction. We can choose to see the potential in these events and remember that God always is here to walk with us through them and nourish what little we feel is left of our spirit or, thinking we are alone, we can become exasperated and hopeless.
God teaches us through Jesus’ resurrection that I can have new life if I remain faithful, even–or especially–in my darkest hours when I fear that God has forsaken me. Faith is key, a faith that is unfailing in its belief in a reawakening of my soul, a revival of my being, a resurrection of the Spirit within me.
