Rhonda Reese Purtee

My daughter’s mother-in-law, Karen has an amazing skill for growing things (and I’m not just referring to her six amazing kids.) I, on the other hand seem to be unusually adept at generating a death zone for any and all plant life. Stuff that “you can’t kill” is simply a plant that hasn’t yet come into contact with me. One time my middle daughter came home from college and noticing a living bamboo plant in the living room commented, “Oh, you got a new bamboo plant to kill.” Karen has this fantastic jade plant in her 3 season room. It’s enormous and healthy with multiple, thick branches and hundreds of glossy leaves. I love it. I want one just like it. So, about 2 years ago, Karen gave me a potted cutting that she had taken from her plant and nursed into a strong, independent child plant. It was about 8 inches tall, and perfectly healthy. It didn’t stay that way. This is a picture of that same plant. The low point was when there were 3 remaining green leaves lying in the planter, which my youngest daughter took and shoved back down into the soil. 2 of them re-rooted themselves. Whenever I look at this little guy, sitting there in my kitchen, I apologize to him and give him kudos for his perseverance. He’s lived longer than any other green thing in the history of Rhonda Reese Purtee. His circumstances are obviously less than ideal. It’s either too wet or too dry. I’ve forgotten him on the window sill in freezing weather and in scorching summer. He never gets fed. He’s lived in the same little pot for two years now (at Karen’s he was living in a beautiful, big glossy ceramic planter.) But he keeps going. That’s perseverance.  
We all come into circumstances that we believe are more than we can survive. We cry out for relief, for rescue; but it seems as if help will never come. What do we do? We persevere, because we know that we have a God who comes to His people. And so we wait for His coming.