Reflections 10/13/2020: Yesterday the golden autumn afternoon wooed me out to our garden. Our tiger lilies were so prolific this year that they threatened to choke each other out. So it was time to divide them to give them more room to grow… and share them with our neighbors! Digging up their ivory clumps of bulbs felt like a treasure hunt! Eureka! But tearing apart those life-giving clumps seemed like death! I was actually blessing them new potential to spread out and multiply… expanding their bugling beauty, but the tearing seemed so abrupt and destructive! Made me think of churches that explode with growth, but find themselves stifled at some point because there is too much happening in too little space. Ingrown! Competing roots! Too much potential packed in one spot! God, the great Gardener, begins a dividing process. Spreading the garden productivity to new, needy areas. Church plants. Missionaries launched. Creative ministries envisioned and actualized. And sadly, sometimes hurtful church divisions that He eventually uses for good. (Like Paul and Barnabas parting ways, but expanding the reach of the gospel as a result!) I HATE the splitting! Feels like death to me. But I LOVE how Your message multiplies in this painful division! “Beauty from ashes!” Healthy tiger lilies freed to light up the whole neighborhood!