AN ADAGE A DAY- ENCOURAGEMENT
Thumbs Up! But is it Green?
By Carole Gilbert
I have a baby in my house. It’s not your normal type of baby and it came from an odd place. One day, I was cutting a grapefruit in half when I saw one of the seeds inside had sprouted! It had a strong root about an inch long all inside the grapefruit. I thought, how can that be? Seeds need water and sunlight to grow, but my baby started without either of these! I carefully got it out and planted it for curiosity’s sake. For years it grew into a nice full plant although it never got very tall and never had fruit. But now, my baby has started to look very poor. My “green thumb” doesn’t seem to be working anymore.
After high school, I worked managing a privately owned greenhouse. I had no idea what to do but the sweet lady that was retiring took me under her thumb and taught me. What she couldn’t teach me was having a natural green thumb. I always had thriving beautiful plants at home but some of the plants at this greenhouse were very picky, like orchids. And I did fine with most of them. But for some reason, as I did my job, my plants at home started to die.
A friend explained, “As a rule of thumb, what you take care of at work is not what you want to take care of at home.”
But the estate owner gave me a thumbs up and brought a close friend in to help. He was head of the Biology Department at our local University. He taught me more about plants and even talked me into taking his biology classes for college credits. I hadn’t planned on going to college, but this professor really had an influential way.
God completes the cycle for our growth by planting just the right people in our path at just the right time. And it’s amazing how He waters and gives His light to the seeds He plants in our lives. But as for my little baby, my thumb has apparently lost its green, and my baby has lost its leaves. I replanted it and I’m still trying. I’m still watering, and I’m still waiting on God to guide me through what to do. And that’s what it really takes, to be completely under His thumb, and receive His direction. We all have His rule of thumb, and His guidance.
My green thumb has changed now. I guess you could say I’m all thumbs. And although I can’t put my thumb on it as to why, I know God is always giving me a positive thumbs up. Our thumbs are used in different sayings and adages because they are an important part of our body. They can easily symbolize our feelings and skills. We use them verbally and we use them without saying anything, such as in a thumbs up or thumbs down motion. I tell all this to explain how God planted the right people and situations throughout my life. He planted them for only one reason. So that I would grow and be able to give Him glory. And He does this for all of us. We are all important, just like the thumb. And God uses us all in many ways, also like the thumb. He reassures us of this through His word.
Thus says the Lord GOD: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. Ezekiel 17:22-23a.