For about a year, I worked in the greenhouses at The Lands at Hillside Farms.
While I loved all the colorful flowers, my favorite plants were the Hens and
Chicks that grew on the wall just outside the back door of the main greenhouse.
Hen and Chicks are also known as Sempervivum, from the Latin
semper, meaning ever or always, and vivum meaning living. No matter what season
it is, these plants thrive!
Hens and Chicks are a group of small succulents, a term that
indicates a plant that can store water in its fleshy parts and therefore don’t
require much watering. What I like most is their hardy determination to grow
just about anywhere, whether conditions seemed conducive to growth or not—like on
the rock wall at Hillside or in the cement blocks lining my patio!
Hens and Chicks propagate very easily. They put out shoots (Chicks)
that can be removed and planted elsewhere to enlarge the area that they cover. These
Hens will grow and produce Chicks of their own, creating a nice ground cover
that can survive sustained temperatures well below freezing.
It seems to me that, as Christians, we should emulate Hens
and Chicks. Like the succulent’s ability to retain life-giving water, we should
store up God’s life-giving Word, taking His teaching to heart (Deuteronomy
11:18) and soaking up His love. (1 John 4:16) In turn, wherever we are, like
the Hens creating new Chicks, we can reach out to others and invite them to
become new followers of Jesus, (Matthew 28:19) spreading the Good News of God’s
saving grace further and further into the world.
I pray that you and I can be as hardy and tenacious as these little plants in living for Jesus, no matter in what situation we may find ourselves.
Be encouraged!
Be encouraged!
Pam
©2019 Pamela D. Williams
writepam71@gmail.com
