The Fifth Basket
The year 2020 will likely go down in history as one of the strangest years ever recorded. Ask anyone over the age of seven what he or she thinks about 2020 and, chances are, the report or description offered will not accentuate the positives. Why not? Well, simply because it doesn’t seem like there are that many positives to accentuate.
It seems like every positive thing in the world has either changed, stopped, been postponed or simply discarded. People are now facing so many more issues, most of which are either government initiated or society driven, and each issue has multiple sides to be taken. Arguments, anger, hatred, distrust and myriad of other hurtful and harmful occurrences are overtaking the minds and hearts of human beings everywhere. People who were once friends are no longer speaking because they stand of different sides of political issues. Fear is causing people to act out against others who do not see situations the same way they do, thus tearing apart friendships that, to this point, have stood the test of tyme. Not to mention, random strangers are harming random strangers just because they look different or have a different opinion on a topic. Yes, if you ask anyone about the number of positives there are to accentuate in 2020, chances are, the number they offer will be considerably less than had you asked in 2019.
So, where are the positives and how do we get them back? Is there still hope or has the ‘new normal’ of 2020 completely depleted the all reserves of optimism that ever existed? Okay, yes, that seems to be a rather negative outlook, but the way the year is going, it stands to reason that many are wondering that very thing.
Several weeks ago…or has it been months? That’s another aspect of 2020 that makes it strange; tyme goes by so fast and yet seems to take forever, but I digress. I’ll just describe it as ‘a while back’. A while back, my mother got five beautiful hanging baskets filled with Petunias and Verbena to use in decorating outside of our church. Well, with 2020 being 2020 and all, we are not having church at the church building, but rather outside at the community center so we can all be socially distant. [Insert personal opinion/comment here]. Still, as head of the beautification committee, my mother wanted the church building to look nice, so she hung the baskets, knowing she would have to drive the few miles to church every other evening to water and care for the flowers.
Have I mentioned that 2020 has had less than positive effects on people? Well, suffice it to type that my mother fell victim to the tyme and mental warp that is 2020. She forgot to water the flowers. After several scorching hot days and no water, the baskets that had been lusciously filled with green, pink and purple were now filled with nothing but brown. One day, one of the church’s trustees stopped by to check on the building and noticed the lifeless baskets. Though it seemed pointless, the trustee watered them and then informed my mother of their dismal status. My mother was heartbroken by her lapse in memory and, after several days, basically gave up on the idea that the flowers would revive. The trustee however did not give up so easily and continued to water the brown, shriveled vines that once bloomed so profusely.
Days passed. Then a week, then two, but there were no signs to offer hope of any recovery…except in one basket. For whatever reason, there was one basket that seemed to be bouncing back. First with green, then with a small bloom, so the trustee kept watering and checking. The trustee told me of the progress and I told my mother, but my mother had given up on the idea of any real recovery. Finally one day, I suggested that my mom bring the baskets home to make it easier to keep an eye on them. She was reluctant, what with the loss of hope and all, but the baskets ended up at her house where she could see them and remember to tend to them.
It's been several weeks since the relocation of the baskets and I am happy to write that all five baskets are green and again blooming profusely with beautiful and vibrant Verbena. Only one basket however revived with both Verbena and Petunias…the fifth basket.
My mother has since tended to the flowers, removing the petunia vines from the first four baskets, but every tyme I see that fifth basket, filled with Verbena AND Petunias, it gives me hope and reminds me triple fold to never give up. You see, not only did the plants in that fifth basket fight the scorching heat to survive, but the trustee who found them fighting fought for them. Both plant and trustee refused to give up hope of survival and that is two folds of my reminder. So, what is the third fold? Well, it’s the hope the Trustee had in regard to the other four baskets. The trustee could have looked at the four totally brown baskets and decided there was no point in watering them because they looked as though they had no hope of surviving, but instead, the trustee looked at the hope in the fifth basket and gave that hope to the other four.
You see, in this strange existence that is 2020 (and really, that is every day of life no matter the year), we all have the power to be like the Trustee and focus on the hope we see in each day and then share that hope with others around us. Yes, life is tough and it can be hard to find many positives to accentuate, but like in the case of the Trustee and the fifth basket, all it takes is one to give hope to many.
So, what is your fifth basket? Where do you focus when you need to find hope that things will get better? Where do you look when you need to find hope that people will stop letting politics ruin their friendships … or hope that fear will cease and stop causing friends to lash out at each other … or hope that strangers will stop harming each other for their differences?
For me that fifth basket, that One Hope, is Jesus Christ. Jesus, The One and only Son of God has already overcome every trouble, problem and evil in this world. He is a constant source of hope in the bleakness that seems to be around us. Like the fifth basket, Jesus is The Hope when there seems to be no other hope around, but unlike that fifth basket, we never have to wonder if Jesus will pull us through. His Hope, His love and His wisdom will never fade or make us question anything. He is there to help us through each day and give us the strength we need to help others have hope.
The bottom line is, life isn’t easy. Troubles occur. We forget to water. The heat scorches. There are tymes that hope seems to evade us on a daily basis, but we all have the power to be a Trustee and focus our hearts and minds on the Fifth Basket and let that Hope be the positive we accentuate and the 2020 vision we share.
-Edward Mote-
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