Christian Living

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Snap Dragon Heaven


After a cold winter of perusing the plentiful seed catalogs, the warm spring we were eagerly anticipating finally arrived. We hot-footed it down with high hopes to the local nursery. Snap dragon plants whose tags promised flowers of brightly colored hues of red, pink, and purple caught my eye. With visions of a vast array of waving blossoms dancing in my head, I made my purchase and gave them a home in our front flower bed.

After coaxing the snap dragons all spring and part of the summer with just the right amounts of water, fertilizer and TLC, the plants were spindly and the blooms sickly. By late summer they appeared to have gone to snap dragon heaven. I inspected the brown plants closely, wiggled them back and forth, broke off some crispy leaves, then pronounced them dead.

Having learned early in my marriage to the master gardener not to pull anything out of any garden without his inspection and certification, I hesitated to continue with the final rites.

After mulling the situation over, I bravely yanked the deceased plants from their bed, tossed them in the thicket on the north side of the house, and called them buried. The master gardener would never suspect.

Before I finished my gardening routine, Himself bellowed from of all places, the north side of the house, "Why are your snap dragons scattered here in the bushes?"

"It can't be,"I mumbled under my breath, "he hasn't passed that way all year! And who would notice those toasted brown plants lying haphazardly in all that brush?"

After hearing my meager explanation of Snap Dragon Heaven, the master gardener rescued the flower corpses and planted them in the garden near his downtown shop. In their new home filled with an abundance of sun and rich healthy soil, the snap dragons revived and grew into beautiful plants smothered with brightly colored flowers, just as their tags had promised.

To this day the master gardener jokingly talks to my flowers, "if you don't shape up you will find yourselves yanked up, and on your way to Snap Dragon Heaven."

As Christians, we too need to spend lots of time with the Son and the rich soil of His Word to grow strong and healthy and bear much fruit.

"I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." John 15:5 KJV

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