Hope Flowers, Pokus Plants, & Prickleberries

Posted On August 7, 2022

“Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Romans 8:24-25 ESV

Hope Flowers

“Today, declare your certainty that God is working everything together for your good. . . . Because God has a plan for your life, you can know for certain that He is using even the most trying circumstances of your life to ready you for His greater goals.”

Charles F. Stanley, God’s Purpose for Your Life

When my husband and I were trying to conceive our second child, I became anxious that we were in for another long wait. It had taken over a year to conceive our first child, and after a couple of months of trying for our second, we still had no good news to share. One morning, feeling really discouraged, I decided to go for a walk to pray and clear my head. I regularly walked in our neighborhood, but that morning as I was walking, I saw a pretty little white flower, like the one shown above, that I was sure hadn’t been there before. It was tall, so I didn’t think it could have just popped up overnight. I convinced myself that I must have just failed to notice it before and walked on.

But then I saw another one. Weird, I thought. I kept walking, and saw another one and then another and then another. Finally, I came upon a whole bunch of them in someone’s yard. It was if God was trying to get my attention to let me know that everything would be okay. Well, it worked! I was so encouraged by them that by the time I got home, my spirit had been lifted and my worries had faded away.

To this day, I don’t know if they had been there all along or if they really did just pop up overnight. But either way, they brought me hope that day. Hope that God had heard my prayers. Hope that God had everything under control. And hope that we would be blessed soon. I was pregnant with my son the next month.

Ever since then, whenever I see these flowers around (and they still seem to me to pop up overnight!), I think of them as hope flowers. I’m sure someone out there knows what they are really called, but I will probably always call them hope flowers because every time I see one, I am reminded that we have a God who listens, who cares, and who is always working everything out for our good.

They also serve as a reminder that waiting can be beautiful. As we wait with hope, confidently expecting God to bring good out of whatever circumstances we are facing, our trust begins to grow and our faith begins to bloom. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait too long to be blessed with my son, but I have experienced long waits in other areas of my life. I’m sure you have, too. In fact, probably each one of us has a struggle right now we are dealing with, wondering how long we will have to endure it. We get impatient. We pray, God, why can’t You just get on with Your plan for my life?

But what I have come to realize is that often the waiting itself is the plan. It’s during these times that we lean in a little closer to God, hoping to hear what He has to say about our situation. And this is exactly what God wants. Because it’s as we draw near to Him, asking Him to work in our circumstances, that He is able to work in our hearts. And that’s what our Christian walk is all about.

Pokus Plants

“We may ask God to remove our problems, and he may choose to do so. But we must recognize that often he will leave a problem but give us the strength and courage to deal with it.”

Chronological Life Application Study Bible

It looks like the creative-plant-naming gene must run in our family because my granddaughter has it, too! When she was smaller, I took her for a walk near my house, and she spotted the prickly pear cactus that grows pretty much everywhere around us. Being a curious toddler, she headed over for a closer look, so I quickly issued a warning about the spines. I said, “Be careful! Those plants can poke us.” I repeated these cautionary words many times on subsequent walks so that she wouldn’t hurt herself. Much later, somehow this came up in conversation with my daughter, and she said, “Oh, that’s what she’s been talking about!” Apparently, every time they drove onto the road near our house, my granddaughter would point out the window and say, “pokus,” thinking that was the name of the plants she saw outside.

I admit I have never loved the look of the “pokus plants” that grow all around us. Although I live in a hot, dry climate, I am not really a fan of the drought-tolerant foliage that thrives here. It does not bring a sense of peace or joy to my soul. It’s been so hot here that we can’t even keep grass alive right now, but the cactus is doing just fine. It seems like it will always be there, sharp and unfriendly, surrounding us and just waiting to poke us!

I realize there are many people that love the look of desert plants and view them in a much different way. But to me, they serve as a reminder of the struggles and hardships we face. It seems like we try so hard to grow something beautiful in our lives, only to be surrounded by prickly problems and painful troubles that just will not go away. We pray for God to remove them, but they stubbornly remain.

This, too, I believe is part of God’s plan. Sometimes, struggling with hardships and trials is exactly what we need to develop something in our character that God will put to use later. He may be preparing us for some greater work. If He chooses to leave problems in our lives, we can trust that He has a very good reason for doing so, and He will give us the wisdom and strength we need to deal with them. If we can persevere through the trials, relying on God to guide us, we will often discover that something wonderful has blossomed as a result.

That doesn’t mean we will necessarily be happy about the struggles. I still don’t like the “pokus plants” that grow all around me, but I am learning to accept them as part of the landscape. Because when the weather cools off and we finally get some rain, all the other plants will begin to thrive, too, and the prickly pear won’t seem quite so oppressive. It will just blend into the background while what I consider the “prettier” plants get to shine. But God is teaching me a lesson here, too, because even the prickly pear can bloom. And when it does, I admit, it is quite beautiful.

Prickleberries

“Prayer is a weapon. . . . Spiritual warfare is fought on our knees.”

Chuck Smith, Prayer: Our Glorious Privilege

The final plant in today’s discussion was also named by my granddaughter, this time with no help from me. She spotted the plant shown above while on one of our walks and said, “Oh, no! It’s a prickleberry!” I have no idea where she got that, but it seems to fit, so now that’s what I call them, too. Again, I am sure there is someone out there that knows the proper name, but I admit I do not, so for me they will remain prickleberries. You may notice that the background in the picture above seems very green and lush, especially considering the description I just gave of our hot, dry climate. This picture was also taken near my house, but it was taken near a place my granddaughter calls “the waterfall.”

It is, in fact, a beautifully landscaped garden with a fountain that one of the homeowners in our neighborhood built, I believe as a witness of their faith to anyone driving by. The fountain is surrounded by rocks and trees and lush, well-maintained landscaping. And its focal point is a stone cross. It even has lights which shine on the cross at night. Considering what the rest of our natural landscape looks like, it is quite striking and very beautiful. And the most amazing part to me is the fact that the homeowners don’t really even get to enjoy it.

I live near a lake, and their house is down by the water. This garden is up near the road and doesn’t even face their house. It’s obviously meant to be a gift to be enjoyed by anyone passing by. And I am very grateful for it. My granddaughter and I are both drawn to it for its beauty and serenity. To me, it’s a perfect prayer garden. And I often take a moment to pray or commune with Christ as a walk by. Since the “prickleberry” got its name at this prayer garden, I associate any others I see with this place and think of them as a reminder to pray.

While trying to decide which aspect of prayer to focus on for this post, there were many ways I could go with it, but ultimately, I chose the spiritual warfare perspective. Because the prickleberries, while beautiful, also look a little scary. And I think they are a perfect representation of what prayer must look like to the enemy. When we pray, especially for others, our prayers become beautiful weapons against evil, and they must be absolutely terrifying to Satan and his demons.

Prayer activates God’s power in a mysterious and awesome way that we will probably never fully understand. But I think we sometimes we forget that. We’ll say something like, “Well, I guess all we can do now is pray” as way of saying we can’t do anything at all. But prayer is most definitely “doing” something. In fact, it’s the most powerful thing we can do because it’s how God’s will is brought about. Think about that for a minute. The all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the universe has chosen to give us input in His plans. Sure, He is ultimately in charge, but the way He brings about His will is affected by our prayers. And since He is outside of time, prayers that we pray now may affect not only the present or the future, but they even be what affected things in the past. It’s absolutely mind-blowing! And I think sometimes we’re tempted to forget that.

In fact, I think we know who it is that’s doing the tempting. Satan would like nothing more than to convince us that prayer doesn’t make a difference, that it isn’t really “doing” anything, because our prayers undermine his evil work, and he is absolutely terrified of them. So let’s not fall for his lies. Let’s activate the power that dwells inside each one of us as followers of Christ and launch some “prickleberries” against the evil that threatens to take us down. Let’s stop the enemy in his tracks and render him powerless, unable to do anything but manage to utter “Oh no!” when he says our prayers coming!

“For the Lord watches over the righteous and listens to their prayers;
but he opposes those who do evil.”

1 Peter 3:12 GNT

This week’s Scripture passages focus on hope, patience, perseverance, and prayer. As we stay in constant communication with our Father, he activates His prayer power in our lives, giving us the strength to persevere against troubles, tribulations, and temptations. He blesses us with peace and joy that’s beyond human understanding. He fills us with hope for the future, no matter the painful circumstances that may surround us. And in the process, He makes our lives blossom into something beautiful!

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Romans 12:12 ESV

References:

• Chronological Life Application Study Bible, New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2012.
• Smith, Chuck. Prayer: Our Glorious Privilege. The Word For Today, 2007.
• Stanley, Charles F. God’s Purpose for Your Life: 365 Devotions. Thomas Nelson, 2020.

Images:

• All images by me