Growth Spurt
by Oliver Carlos
The latest plant that I am cultivating in my garden is a dragon fruit. I’m very intrigued by this wonder fruit. It doesn’t taste anything spectacular, but I’ve read that it’s very nutritious. It’s a good source of vitamin C, fiber, probiotic, and antioxidants. It is also believed to be effective in lowering blood sugar, aiding iron absorption, and strengthening one’s immune system. These are probably the reasons why the dragon fruit is quite expensive.
The dragon fruit is not endemic in the Philippines, it’s originally from tropical America. But today, there are many growers of it in Southeast Asia. The dragon fruit belongs to the cactus family. What we have in the Philippines are 2 species. The one with the white flesh is Selenicereus undatus. Meanwhile, the more appealing red-fleshed dragon fruit is Selenicereus costaricensis. I don’t know what I have in my garden until my plant bears fruit and I slice it open.
Right now, I’m quite impatient for it to bloom some flowers and fruit. I asked friends and researched how long cuttings would bear fruit. Some say 1.5 years, others say 2 years, while a few literature peg 5 years. In any case, I find the wait quite long. I wanted already to pick dragon fruits and enjoy its health benefits. I’m so excited that I look at it every day and pray for it grow really fast.
One day, I woke up to a big surprise. My single stalk plant has grown 10 inches just overnight! I couldn’t believe what I saw. I’m very sure how long it was the previous day because I kept an eye on my plant daily. That morning, it stretched by almost 1 foot. My dragon fruit plant had just undergone a growth spurt.
I can’t explain the how and why of this phenomenon as I’m not really a plant expert. But I do remember an old preaching by Pastor (now Bishop) Edwin Taladro about bamboo shoots in his home province of Masbate that would have great growth spurts overnight. He used to live in a rural area as a teen and he saw with his own eyes that some plants would be stagnant in their growth for long periods, and then they would suddenly shoot up in a snap. It’s nature’s way, he said.
It’s God who causes plants to experience growth spurts at his will. There’s no discernable pattern when this would happen, but they do happen, in God’s appointed time. This applies not only to plants, but to other matters in real life.
Sometimes we long for growth or breakthroughs in our lives, or in the lives of our children, students, business, ministry, or anyone or anything under our watch. We may feel impatient for not seeing the progress we want to see in our timeline. We say to ourselves, “How can this be, I’ve done everything right anyway?” We must remember that it’s good to do our part of the process, but it is still God who will cause all things to grow. David, the psalmist described this truth of God’s sovereignty on nature:
“People all around the world are amazed at the wonderful things you do…
You take care of the land. You water it and make it fertile… That’s how you make the crops grow. You pour rain on the plowed fields… and you make the young plants grow.” (Psalm 65:8–10, ERV)
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul pointed the same, but on the growth of people:
“I planted the seed and Apollos watered it. But God is the one who made the seed grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6, ERV)
If you have been praying for so long for some growth spurt in whatever area of your life? Be patient and never give up praying. God will make that happen in his time.
