"What in the world is it?"
"It looks dead."
"It looks like a rock from space."
My third grade students stud-
ied this bizarre gift from a friend
of mine. Every year my friend sends my
class one of these and each year the re-
action is the same. Why would someone
send something so craggy and ugly, so
strange and grotesque? What could ever be-
come of it?
The package had come, as it always did, in
November. The students gathered around the
wonderful box, excited about a gift that came to
them at school. Their wonder turned into
bewilderment. Protruding from a green
plastic pot filled with mossy looking material
was an unattractive, unrecognizable, unlov-
able "thing." Was it a rock? A stump? An
alien from space? What in the world was it?
"You must have faith," I told the students.
"Trust me. Put it in the windowsill. We must water
it every day."
I created a watering chart, and the students dili-
gently watered this unsightly thing every day. Per-
haps they did it to humor their crazy teacher, for
they saw no purpose in watering what looked like
a stone or a dead piece of wood.
One morning, after a couple of weeks of patient
watering, it happened.
"Look!"
"What is it?"
"It's alive!"
Protruding from the dead, ugly mass was a vibrant,
verdant triangle. The top of a leaf had emerged from
something that was clearly dead.
Soon a second leaf emerged. We created a line
graph to track each leaf's progress. Multiple lines
were created with each new leaf. Every day the chil-
dren ran in to see what would happen to this rapidly
changing wonder.
18
The War Cry of The Salvation Army
We, too, are pathetic and unsightly as we
make poor choices, as we turn our back on
others, as we work to take care of our
own problems without God. We are
proud, arrogant, thoughtless and defi-
ant. We are as wretched and hideous
as the homely thing sitting in the pot
on the windowsill of my classroom.
God created us perfectly. But when we entered
this sinful world, we became unrecognizable as
God's perfect creation, unlovable by anyone, es-
pecially ourselves. Without faith in God, our un-
attractiveness remains. When we allow God to
work in our broken, ugly, sin�malformed lives, we
begin to transform. We produce leaves of
love, caring, hope and change. By God's grace,
people see an amazing change in us.
One day, just as we were about to leave for
vacation, another beautiful change took place.
The ugly, unloved "thing" had produced an
enormous, lusciously red flower. Now the three�
foot plant had three spectacularly red amaryllis
blossoms and everyone who passed by the room
stopped to look inside. How could something so un-
promising, lifeless and grotesque, turn into some-
thing so vibrant, luscious and amazing?
We are much the same. Why would God create
us? How can He love us? We are creatures of sin
and greed, of ulterior motives and selfish decisions,
of deceitful hearts and envious minds. Like the
amaryllis bulb, what could ever become of such a
grotesque thing?
God does not see us as the world sees us. He sees
us as what we will become, not as we are now. He
nurtures us, fills us and teaches us. As we accept
His love, read His Word, spend time in His presence
in prayer and praise His majesty, we become like
that amaryllis bulb. We are transformed.
by
BRENDA MORROW
F r o m G r o t e s q u e t o
Brenda Morrow lives in El Paso, TX.
Glorious
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