SelahV Today by hariette petersen

CONQUERING VINES

Kudzu is a vine with a beautiful blossom.  I just learned of Kudzu yesterday.  It was used in a comment stream in reference to "lunch" in a blog-post I was monitoring.  Since I love to eat new things, my appetite was whet.  Yeah...it really is edible.  The word "kudzu" grabbed my attention as easily as the Kudzu vine reaches out and encircles objects within its reach.  It grabbed my curiosity and wound its way into my thoughts until I had to google it and discover what it was.  I found more than meets the eye about Kudzu.  It has all kinds of twists and turns a writer could use as illustrative fodder.  Indeed, one, among many of Kudzu's uses is fodder to feed livestock.

It is a plant that made it's way from the Asia, specifically China and Japan.  So we have a foreign plant that has made its way into Southeastern America to embed itself and twist its vines around everything around it.  Kudzu literally grew so fast that it gained other nicknames--one of which was "the vine that ate the South". Tennessee is using goats and llamas to eat it down to its roots.  They want rid of this fungus.  Another nickname is "foot-a-night-vine".  So if kudzu embeds itself within a given area, it can rapidly grow and take over the area in a few short nights.  Another nickname implies, a "mile-a-minute" growth.  Amazingly, it takes several clusters of little pods to produce a couple of seeds.  So it needs to grow a lot, and wiggle its way into the grounds in order to create enough clusters to yield a couple of seeds.  But oh the damage those two seeds can do when they fall to earth and embed beneath the soil.

It makes me think of how Jesus would have been able to parable-lize this plant in the Kingdom of God.  Can't you just imagine Him saying, "The kingdom of God is like Kudzu.  Though many pods cluster--only two seeds amid them will fall to earth.  Each seed dies, takes root and gives birth to a vine which grow into more vines.  Are you a seed amid the cluster?"

Kudzu is fungi.  It's hated among men.  Some men take Kudzu and use it medicinally.  Its roots.  Its vines.  It has anti-inflammatory properties.  Harvard is studying it as a possible way to reduce alcohol cravings.  The Chinese use it to help get over hangovers. It's shown value in treating migraines, and cluster headaches--apart from alcohol. It is recommended for allergies and diarrhea.  It may help women with postmenopausal symptoms, such as hypertension and diabetes type II.  In China it's also used to treat tinnitus, vertigo and other things. (See Wikipedia)

Wikipedia writes, "Kudzu has been traditionally used as a remedy for alcoholism and hangover in China. The root was used to prevent excessive consumption, while the flower was supposed to detoxify the liver and alleviate the symptoms afterwards."

Kudzu may be a good thing for some good uses, but it destroys croplands.  Man and animal feed upon Kudzu.  Kudzu may appear to offer good things in the world, but not the "best thing".  Can you hear the Master?  I can.

It's amazing to me what a rambling kudzu vine could do in blogland--in the bogs of blog-streams, if only they were concerned with the "better" thing instead of their own things.  I've always loved wildflowers--ones that seem to appear out of no-where and bloom.  Sometimes I've called them God's bouquets.  But so many on this earth see wildflowers in the meadows of life and call them weeds.  Some want to conquer the vines...others watch as the Vine conquers them. selahV

PARABLE OF RIGHT AND LEFT

Once upon a time, two friends walked side by side in a field of dreams.  The field was given them to till, to plow, to tend.  One sowed his seed on the right side, the other sowed his on the left side.  The rains came and the sun shone, each given equal sustenance.

But something surprising occurred.

As they sowed their field of dreams, they found that one friend's seed grew taller and higher than the other's.  Upon closer inspection the one with the taller plants discovered their seed was different.  And so he told his friend and offered to share the superior seed.  But his friend didn't care.  He chose to continue to sow his seed though his was inferior and never grew taller, and only yielded blemished fruit come harvest time.

Year after year the friends continued to sow their seed and tend the same field.  Year after year, one had less and less seed to resow the following year.  Each year the friend whose field was on the right and who yielded more and more seed than he could possibly plant, offered seed to his friend.  But with each offer, he was rebuffed.

On the ninth year, the friend with superior seed found his side of the field yielded 100 times more than his friend's on the left.  In fact, his friend had only enough to survive for the winter, and none left to replant the following year.  He knew his friend would not take any of his seed, so he decided not to bother him with an offer.  But he planned in his heart what he'd do.  He could not possibly use all his seed and if he left it stored in the barns, it would rot.  So he decided to take some of it abroad and share it with those who would accept it.  He left word with his servants what to do with the remaining seed and the field if he did not return before harvest. 

The following Spring, the servants went out and began planting the field of dreams.  While they were sowing the right side of the field, the friend with no seed became angry.  He had nothing to sow in his side of the field on the left.  So he went into the byways and hedges and gathered darnels, thistles and dandelions that produced thousands upon thousands of seeds faster than his friend's field could grow.  Late one night, he sneaked out to the field and sprinkled the darnels, thistles and dandelions throughout the entire field.  He knew the seeds would grow and multiply and fill his friend's field and choke out his harvest.  If he could not achieve his dreams, then he was not about to allow his friend to achieve his.

The rains came and the sun shone on both sides of the field all summer.  When the right side grew, each plant was choked out by the thistles, darnels and dandelions that grew. 

Harvest time came and the friend didn't return from abroad.  None of the plants his servants had sown had survived.  The servants fell to their knees and wept.  Soon the friend who had sown the weeds came to the right side of the field to gloat over the destruction.  When he found the servants weeping, he asked, "Why do you weep?  It is not you who will starve this winter, but me.  Surely your master has more seed stored in his barns to survive the winter."

With tears streaming down their cheeks the servants replied, "No, he took all he had to give everyone else and left instructions for us to plant both sides of the field with his superior seed.  He knew you wouldn't accept his seed, so he told us to sow both sides of the field with his seed so you would have all the bounty you needed.  Only now it appears all that is left is thistles, darnels and dandelions.  And those weeds have sprouted and grown on both sides of the field, so neither of us had any yield."  selahV

WHEN SOME SEEDS FALL ALONG THE WAY

[© SelahV Today, hariette petersen, 2008]