“They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.  Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.” Psalm 1:3

Drought

We’re in the midst of a severe drought in Cape Town. It’s the worst in over 100 years. We’re on very restricted water rationing, and the threat of “Day Zero” has been looming over us for months. If the dams get too low, the taps will be turned off. It looks like we may escape this happening for now, but we still need lots of rain this winter to recover.

Cape Town looks very different from previous years. It’s always been so green and lush  Now there’s lots of brown foliage. Green lawns are dry, brown, and sandy. Many, many plants have died from the lack of water.

However, whenever I look out my windows there is one plant that is thriving and beautiful with abundant bright colored flowers—our bougainvillea. It apparently is drought tolerant. It flowers all year round. I’ve been amazed in previous years that it has survived the blustery winter rain and wind storms. The bougainvillea is tough! It withstands those gale force winds that come in off the ocean.

The bougainvillea flowers are “paper like” but very strong. The vibrancy of their beautiful flowers is such an encouraging sight in the midst of the drought when just about everything else has shriveled up and died. These plants just seem to thrive despite the adverse circumstances.

I have been so impressed by them, and have thought a number of times that they have lessons to teach me. They must be deeply rooted in the ground to survive the Cape winds. Their branches start off thin, and grow to be thick and strong; if you want to cut them, you have to saw through them. As they grow, they “cling” to the surfaces they are growing on.

While walking through some of our adverse circumstances, I’ve known that I have to let my roots in the Lord grow deeper and deeper. I need to let my times of communion with Him grow strong. I need to continually cling to His Word to feed me and nourish me. My strength at times feels “paper like,” but the Lord comes through with His grace, His power, and His might to get me through the tough times. I want to thrive in spite of hard times!

These beautiful flowers speak to me daily of God’s goodness and faithfulness. They remind me that He is mindful of me. The God who created these flowers to withstand hard conditions will, even more, help me get through anything I face on this unexpected journey.

“Father, I am so grateful that You, the gardener, watch over my life and help me weather hard seasons. You are so good and faithful!”

P.S.  There are so many lovely views of these strong, beautiful plants that I look out on. I thought I’d include just a couple photos to show you what I’ m writing about.