Leaf Cutter Ants and Growth

Do you have a green thumb? I definitely don’t. I always used to make a joke that my thumb was black and I would say, ‘I can keep kids alive, but not plants and not pets’. Although it was a joke, isn’t there always some truth to our jokes??

I love plants, flowers, nature. I appreciate their beauty and feel so much peace when I am enjoying all that God has created. My dad is an amazing gardener. He knows about all plants and is constantly in his yard making it even more beautiful. My grandma was like that too. Even as she got older and moved into smaller and smaller places, she always had her flowers. Unfortunately, that talent doesn’t pass through your genes. You have to spend the time learning if you want to be good with plants.

The last couple of years have been really tough and I have had such a deep desire for beauty around me. This has led me to plant flowers and really try to keep them alive. As I have planted and watered and started to learn about growing things, I have found a lot of joy in the process. Growth and beauty are growth and beauty, no matter what is growing and what is beautiful. I have worked up to the point of being able to keep plants alive if they are planted in the ground. I am quite happy about that. I don’t think I will ever be able to successfully keep a potted plant alive, but I have made peace with that. Just don’t ever gift me a potted plant. Haha

As I have been learning, I have come to realize that even if I do everything ‘right’ a plant can still have problems and not grow well. For example, my bougainvillea in my front yard. I love bougainvillea—they remind me of when my oldest kids were small. They would pick them for me from a huge, unruly plant that was near our house at the time. Where we are living now, there are also a lot of bougainvillea plants. All of them are so big they have to be cut back. They take over the front of people’s houses, or grow over their fences. But mine…. well, at the moment it looks like this:

In the past, I might have wondered what I did wrong. Aren’t we always quick to blame ourselves and assume we could have/should have done something different? But, I have done enough learning that I know this is definitely not my fault. This is the fault of leaf-cutter ants. Do you know what they are?? If you’ve lived anywhere they live, I’m sure you do. No matter what you do, they can come in one night and destroy your plant. They rip it up bit by bit and carry it back to wherever they live and you are left with a stripped, ugly plant. We have even had them destroy an entire papaya tree.

These types of things can be really disappointing for someone like me. Someone who is trying to do something new and ‘figure it out’. I can feel like there is growth, but then something else comes to destroy my progress. But as usual, God teaches me something through my plants, even when they seem like lost causes. Gardening is a lot like life, isn’t it?

One of those lessons has been that it all doesn’t depend on me. Yes, I knew that already, but I need to be reminded of this lesson many times. So many things are out of my control.  Even if I did everything perfectly (which I obviously don’t come anywhere close to), many outcomes are not in my hands. Parenting is another example of this. We can feel so responsible for each thing our kids do, or don’t do, but as they grow, it becomes clear that they are their own person. Is what I do important? Absolutely, but they are different than I am, will make their own decisions, and ultimately lead their own lives. I cannot control the outcome of their lives any more than I can control if leaf-cutter ants destroy my plants. I can keep doing what I know to do and release my grip on the outcome. I know God is in control and he can teach me and them from each situation we face.

Another lesson is that sometimes God allows leaf-cutter ants….Why? I don’t know. I’m sure it’s different in every situation, but he does allow them. Somethings don’t work out, no matter how hard we try. Or sometimes they do work out, but we have to coax them back to life after they have been devoured. Sometimes things get very bleak and we just don’t understand. The only thing left at that point is to trust God and fight for hope. A verse that has been very important to me lately is Romans 4:18. It says, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed…" Abraham had many reasons not to have hope, but he is credited with great faith because he chose to have hope anyway. He stared at the proverbial devoured bougainvillea and chose to hope for new growth. Man, do I want to be more like that.

A final lesson that I am learning from my current gardening attempts is that evil is real. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…” The devil is real and he does steal, kill, and destroy. You can’t look at destruction, whether it be big or small and not realize that. It reminds you that “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8). But the beginning of that verse also warns us to “Be alert and of sober mind”. We must stay alert. Maybe for my devoured bougainvillea that means moving the plant somewhere else, or finding a way to prevent leaf-cutter ants from eating it again. (Anyone know any tricks??) But I also must remember that God wins in the end. Inside that devoured bougainvillea plant there is still life. Good wins.

Maybe someday mine will look like this.

It's no accident that I love flowers—they are beautiful. They take work and knowledge. And even then, they can get attacked in one night and look like my plant. But God is the ultimate gardener and I am so thankful he keeps growing me even in the times when growth feels hopeless. I am so thankful he doesn’t give up on me.

The action step for today is to stop and ask yourself this question: What have I learned from plants that applies to my life?

If you can’t come up with anything, buy a new plant, take care of it and stay open to what God wants to teach you.

John 15:1b “…my Father is the gardener.”