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Earlier this year, I started on the official “fill all the pots” mission.  Along the front of the house, I have these big black pots that hold asparagus fern and on a day filled with sunshine, I started switching out the old and replacing with the new.  I dug out the old plant—root ball and all, rotated the soil, added enrichments and then planted the baby fern.

Things got crazy after that.  We were in the middle of our busiest work season, we went out of town and then a host of other things happened.  I had a house-sitter and others that helped water so I didn’t actually set eyes on these plants again for some time.

Almost two months later, I was watering when I noticed that one of the pots didn’t seem to be as full as the others.  I went up to it and immediately felt sick.

Somehow, I missed actually planting the fern.  I saw the messed up soil from where I pulled out the dead one and laying on top of the soil was the new plant—rootball almost completely exposed.  I felt so bad.  I was in a hurry, so I intended to come back the following day to plant the fern…and four more weeks passed…

Have you ever felt like this little fern?  You were promised something wonderful, and then you were forgotten?  Were you promised a raise or a promotion and weeks, months or even years later you find yourself in the same position?  Did a friend promise to help you and not show up?  Did you ask for a vacation only to find yourself scheduled for a work project at the same time? 

That’s the problem with humans.  With them, we can be forgotten…

However, our hope is in the fact that there is One who does not forget.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Deut 31:6

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you?   Luke 12:27-28

Then there is this little gem:

The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst.But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.  Isaiah 41:17-20

For that little fern, He did just that.  He sent life giving rain.  We haven’t had this much rain at my house in years.  However, He went further.  The pot the fern was in was a “problem” one that wasn’t draining efficiently.  In other words, it was holding water—the very thing that plant needed to live.

It is the exact same for us.  You are NOT forgotten.  Even if you are in a place where you appear to be forgotten by man, look around you.  You will see God’s provision.  Perhaps you have a co-worker that makes you smile or laugh.  Perhaps you find yourself with increased strength to do jobs that normally require two people.  Perhaps that project you got called in to do with have eternal impact.

In the natural, it’s hard to see the things of God happening all around us and that is one of the Enemy’s greatest tools.  If he can allow us to have blinder’s to God’ provisions, he can make us feel forgotten.  Abandoned.  Alone.

When I finally got around to planting that fern, I had a surprise.  I tried to lift it out of the pot, but I could not.  Even laying sideways, it had put down roots.  It had dug deep with the roots that touched soil to make up for all the roots exposed to air.  It had chosen to survive and in its own way, thrive.

Today, may we all be like this little fern.  May we send down deep roots into the Word of God—our complete nourishment—and declare that we are not forgotten.  Instead, we are cherished.

What about you?  What is your story of provision?  We would all love to hear it.