i killed some plants

I killed some plants recently, but then I revived them. We bought all of these plants for the summer women's events we are doing. The theme is "Rooted" so plants were a fitting choice. Somehow, unbeknown to me, I became the plant's caretaker. This is funny for many reasons. I don't own a yard and I have never owned a plant...taking care of plants could not be further off my radar so after a week....the Crepe Myrtle trees were dead looking...brown...wilted....dead. First, I had no idea it was my job to take care of them. Second, it wasn't like I thought about watering them and then thought, "No, that is not my job"....it never even occurred to me that they needed water. Whoops. So without even really knowing it...I killed them. We called the place we bought them from and they said you had to fill the pot up 3 times in a row, everyday and they would eventually come back. So, I have taken up my daily duty of watering the plants, even on my days off. After a week of this, I walked up and noticed something amazing....little green leaves coming through where there had previously been just brown, crumbly ones. I had revived them. For a moment I was proud of myself, until I remembered....I was the one who killed them. I broke them and then I fixed them.

I was reading in the Psalms back in the winter time and I ran across this passage that shook me up pretty good. It was this same idea of breaking and fixing...or I like to call it breaking and bandaging.
Psalm 66:10-12 says, "For You, God, tested us; You refined us as silver is refined. You lured us into a trap; You placed burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us out to abundance."

The thing that really disturbed me about this passage is that it doesn't say that other sources did all these horrible things to us, but it is okay because God brought us out to abundance. It says that the Lord did those things. "You lured. You placed. You let"...and then "You brought." I do not want to think that this is God doing these first things, but this concept is all over Scripture.

"You caused me to experience many troubles and misfortunes, but You will revive me again, even from the depths of the earth." Psalm 71:20

“on the day that the Lord bandages His people’s injuries and heals the wounds He inflicted.” Isaiah 30:26c

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD." Jeremiah 31:27-28

When you come across passages like these and life situations that dictate the same it would be easy to turn a hard heart towards God. We really have to believe and plant our hearts in verses like Romans 8:28, in words like the ones that Joseph spoke in Genesis 50...
“You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result-the survival of many people.”

God orchestrates and allows, but there is a "but." Maybe, sometimes, this is the only way He can bring us to abundance. This is an idea that I wrestle with heavily. I am much better at accepting this idea when I am not in a "breaking and bandaging" time period. It is easier to agree with Romans 8:28 when things are going well.

So I killed the plants on accident....not for any good reason, which means I have no ability to claim excitement over my reviving them. When God breaks something and then revives it, thank goodness it is for a purpose.