AMARYLLIS BELLADONNA!

Photo by MRB.

The Amaryllis Belladonna pictured above, growing in my backyard is a perfect, God given metaphor of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!!! I decided to re-post Amaryllis Belladonna, one of my favorite and most meaningful devos on this Easter day of 2025. Enjoy and rejoice on this special day for He has risen indeed!!!!  

Here is a plant that grows a giant cluster of leaves in the early spring.  You ask yourself, ‘hey, where are the blooms?’  Then the leaves wither and die!  You think it’s over.  And then in the late summer, when everything looks tired and hot, several thin but strong stems arise, each with a cluster of buds.  And just like that you have a bouquet of beautiful Belladonna blooms!

BELLADONA HAS RISEN!                                                       

And we thought it was dead…They thought Jesus was dead too.  I’m sure the devil and the Pharisees who crucified Him thought He was dead, but SURPRISE, He was raised like Belladonna in full bloom having defeated the devil and death, that those who believed in Him might have eternal life. John 3:16. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’                                                                      

What else does this plant from ‘the book of nature’ have to say to us?  I believe it holds a promise of God!  God created the Belladonna and ordained that it would grow a cluster of leaves to absorb energy from the sun and nutrients from the soil, then lie dormant for a period of time in preparation for its main purpose in life!  TO BLOOM!   If we, like the Belladonna, submit ourselves to Him, He promises that we will bloom, even if it is in the ‘late summer’ of our lives!

Remember Moses.  He was adopted by a royal princess, raised in the palace of the Pharaoh and received the best education the ancient world had to offer!  He fled to the land of Midian at age 40.  For 40 more years, he worked as a shepherd, married and had two sons.  Like the plant, he spent a time of preparation.  80 YEARS!  And in the ‘late summer of his life’, HE BLOOMED.  

He obeyed God and delivered God’s people the Israelites from the bondage of slavery in Egypt.

How many people do you know who have truly bloomed in life, actually found their purpose?

Ben Carson was called the ‘dumbest kid in grade school.’  He believed it.  His report card proved it, 6 F’s and 2 D’s.  His single mother had only a third-grade education.  But she was smart, very smart.  She began to nurture Bennie by saying things like, ‘you weren’t meant to be a failure, Bennie.’  ‘You’re a smart boy.  Listen to me.  You just ain’t using that smartness.’  ‘You keep getting grades like that and you be mopping floors in a factory.’  ‘That ain’t the life I want for you.  That ain’t the life God wants for you.’  ‘I’m gonna have to have a talk with Him about you and your brother.’  She solicited God’s help and we begin to see the first green leaves appear in Bennie’s life.  

She discovered that he needed glasses!  He couldn’t read the blackboard 15 feet away.  She continued to nurture him with her words saying to him, ‘you got the whole world in there.’  (Pointing to his head.)  ‘You just got to see beyond what you see, use your imagination.’  

And she didn’t just talk to her boys.  She made them learn their times tables.  She limited their TV!  She said to them, ‘why do you waste all that time watching TV.  If you used that time developing your God-given gifts, it wouldn’t be long before folks was watching you on TV.’

She made them go to the library, pick out two books a week and write about them. 

The boys began to thrive!  Ben became like a sponge, soaking in all the knowledge he could.

He won spelling bees.  He was awarded a ‘Certificate for the student with the Highest Academic Achievement’ in high school.  He received an academic scholarship to attend Yale University in 1969, graduating third in his class!  He became fascinated with the brain.  He was accepted into an internship program at the prestigious John Hopkins School of Medicine.  He began to BLOOM!  At the age of 33, he was named the Head of Pediatric Surgery at John Hopkins Hospital!  He became the world’s greatest pediatric surgeon! 

There is book and a movie about his life called ‘Gifted Hands, The Ben Carson Story.’  A must watch!!!  His brother became an engineer.          

And what about you?  What are you being prepared for?  Are you allowing the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to prepare you so that you will also bloom one day?  Are you nurturing your children with the power of words like Bennies mother?  Are you helping them develop their God given gifts?  Are you soliciting Gods help?  Look again at the miracle of Ben Carson’s life!  

God said, ‘for I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ (Help you bloom!) Jeremiah 29:11.

Take a lesson from the Belladonna.  It does exactly what God called it to do.  It takes the time to prepare itself and then blesses everyone with its beautiful BLOOMS! 

Click on the link below to watch the trailer of ‘Gifted Hands, The Ben Carson Story’.