Autumn's Abounding Love

The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
(Psalm 145:8 ESV)

The life is in the leaf. Let me clarify: "To the tree, the life is in the leaf." After the flood, the dove returned to Noah with an olive leaf in its beak. From this, Noah knew there was life somewhere, but he could not yet see it.

When Jesus placed a curse upon the fig tree, the disciples knew the tree had died because the leaves had withered. The life was no longer in the leaf, symbolizing death.

Autumn is a season of hope and a time of faith. There are annuals, and there are perennials. Annuals live for a season, but perennials endure the cycle of life. Annuals depend on their seeds to reproduce themselves, for when their leaves are gone, so is the plant. Perennials shed their leaves with the confidence that the season that they are about to endure is only temporary, for there is hope in something that is not yet seen. Either way, it is a time to say that the old is ending, but there is hope.

I invite you to step into your garden or yard, picking an abundant sample of leaves. Some large, some small; some complicated, some simple; some green, some changing color. What do you see?

I then invite you to take a walk or drive, just looking at the leaves. Again, what do you see: the variation of colors, the bending of leaves to the breeze, the distinctions between top and bottom, or the magnificent selection of type, shape and elegance?

I am fascinated with how thin a leaf can be. A cactus is thick for it stores its water in the leaf. But the leaves of a broadly reaching maple tree, turning yellow or orange or red in the autumn, are really very thin. The needles of a hemlock or pine tree, though not truly leaves, can also be very thin.

How does God get the water into all the extremities of the leaf? Do you remember how your biology teacher explained the process of photosynthesis, where water is combined with sunlight and carbon dioxide to give off oxygen and carbohydrates? My biology teacher was never able to explain how God got the water into that leaf, as thin as it is, so that the miracle of photosynthesis would appear before our eyes.

As you touch the leaf, sense how it bends. God has somehow made a way for the minutest portions of water to be delivered to every part of that leaf. As thin as the leaf may be, you know there is water in there, for if the water was gone, the leaf would not gently bend.

Somehow God gets the water into the leaf, and somehow he gets Christ inside a believer. To me, this is the one of his greatest miracles: putting a believer in Christ and Christ in a believer. "I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me" (John 17:23). The life is in the believer, the source of all hope.

To the tree, the life is in the leaf. To the Christian believer, the life is within and abounding in steadfast love.

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End Note: The overall theme for this series of articles is flowers and plants, showing how they point to love. Sometimes I write 'how to' do something, other times the emphasis is a status update, or the article will be about how a plant or flower touched my heart. All of these writings are based on plants from the Gethsemane Prayer Garden in Syracuse, NY. Please consider some of the other blog articles: Index of Articles About the Gethsemane Prayer Garden.

Chameleon Plants: Choose the Right Location

I particularly enjoy a 9" tall groundcover named chameleon plant with beautiful green leaves, adorned with red, pink and yellow highlights. The colors are most vibrant along the edge of a shaded area where they will get more sun. Otherwise in fuller shade, the leaves are green with occasional blotches of cream.

Yet to many, they can feel as if a curse was upon them when they purchased the chameleon plant (Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon'). The positive side of this extremely aggressive groundcover is that it will quickly fill in spots under trees, choking out most other weeds and plant life. The negative side is that it will also spread to other places in the garden if precautions are not properly taken, and it is nearly impossible to get remove. The plant also has a somewhat pungent fragrance, meaning it is best left for show.

As with most plants, you should be familiar with its growing habits before purchasing them. A sunflower should not be positioned under a tree with low branches, and a cactus should not be planted in the muck of a swamp. An old-time landscaper once told me that a beautiful rose in a corn field is nothing more than a weed.

We have a large area in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden where Austrian pines grow as an established border to the landscaped area. Lawn surrounds the trees on all sides, so I am not concerned about the aggressive nature. The chameleon plant spreads by its roots, so keeping the lawn mowed should restrict the plants boundaries.

We have just finished developing this new bed for the chameleon groundcover. Several weeks ago, I sprayed Round-Up on the grass in the shape of the new bed, approximately 1,500 sq. ft. We had extra soil from another area at the church where a retention pond was being built, so we brought about 10 yards of this virgin soil to a location adjacent to the new bed.

The day before the scheduled planting, I dug up a 6' x 12' bed of chameleon plant that grows vibrantly under the deck at our house. It was nearly impossible to remove all of the roots and that was not a concern – I know that the plant will be fully reestablished in two years. I dug just the roots, leaving all of the soil under the deck.

On the day of the planting, the plan was to simply spread the roots onto the now dead grass and then throw the soil on top. It sounded so easy! Yet I had not anticipated how wet the rich clay had become.

If we had used sifted topsoil, the plan would have worked wonderfully. Instead, we had to throw the heavy clay over the general area, let it dry, and then rake it several days later until it was finally level. The bare roots of the chameleon plant were then pressed into the still moist soil.

My expectation is that the chameleon plant will be fully established in this extended bed within two or three years. At that point, weeds should become a minimal problem. In the meantime, we will have to weed extensively because we are not adding mulch.

In the parable of the weeds in Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus spoke about a field where good grain seed had been intermixed with weeds. When the servants questioned why there were weeds, the master replied 'An enemy has done this.' That is how many feel about the weeds that grow up with the chameleon plant – an enemy did it. With wisdom and patience, I believe that the beauty of this plant can be enjoyed for many years without having to gather all the weeds in bundles to be burned.

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End Note: The overall theme for this series of articles is flowers and plants, showing how they point to love. Sometimes I write 'how to' do something, other times the emphasis is a status update, or the article will be about how a plant or flower touched my heart. All of these writings are based on plants from the Gethsemane Prayer Garden in Syracuse, NY. Please consider some of the other blog articles: Index of Articles About the Gethsemane Prayer Garden.