The Gospel According to my Fiddle Leaf Fig…

The Momentary Thoughts from a Satiated Mind is a sacred space where Spirit speaks before the fruit ever shows. Where whispers of heaven plant themselves in voice notes, and morning commutes, and friendly WhatsApp messages. Where prayer calls turn into healing sessions! Oh, and the thought, she’s sometimes that unexpected guest—showing up barefoot, bold, and right on time… even if I’m in yesterday’s sweats and not emotionally ready for company 😅

I love my fiddle leaf fig tree. This is actually the second one I’ve owned—the first one… well, let’s just say it went on to glory.  It wasn’t a peaceful passing either.  More like leaf by leaf, brown spot by brown spot, until one day I had to accept that I wasn’t nurturing a plant anymore—I was presiding over a memorial service.  I had been so sure I could keep it alive, but on this one day, I looked at it and realized I was basically running a plant hospice in my living room.  No revival, no Lazarus moment—just brittle leaves, a painful heart, and regret.

My newly found love...

Fast forward months later, when I was ready to do it again and to recreate my newly found love for this green being, I found one on sale at Sam’s Club.  I’m not sure whether it was the fact that I love this type of plant or the fact that it was on sale that made me leap and I bought the second one!  When I brought it home I put it on my kitchen counter and thought the sunlight that hits the counter from my large living room window would do the trick.  A few weeks into watering it, checking the soil moisture and turning it around so all parts of it could enjoy the sunlight, it seemed to give good results.  Until one day I came home and found some leaves had fallen off and some leaves were turning brown.  At that point I started to have a conversation with God.  I literally said, “Now listen Lord, we are doing this one together.  This plant will live and it will not die in the name of Jesus!”  And I literally started touching each leaf one by one and praying for it.  What gave me a little chuckle in that moment is the awareness that sometimes faith starts as something small and seemingly insignificant—a conversation over a plant—but it revealed how I sometimes choose to live in partnership with God.  It was at this point of awareness that many other lessons would unfold for me.

Of course, the journey hasn’t been perfect.  Some of the leaves continued to turn brown.  Some well, fell off altogether.  (Tell me that’s not the story of our own growth—parts of us wither away while something new struggles to emerge.)  But I didn’t give up. A few weeks ago, I went on YouTube to find some remedies for this plant and when I found a remedy I repotted it, gave it new soil, watered it with some fertilizer, and moved it to my bathroom window because I recognized that the sun pours in brighter every morning, and the moon shines gently every night from this window.  I haven’t shut the blind in my bathroom window since!  The light has become part of the plant’s rhythm—and mine too.

Add to that a little consistency—a weekly watering of two cups of water with a teaspoon of fertilizer—and suddenly, I saw…new leaves budding.  I saw the color become more green; I saw the leaves shining livelier!  Life pushing through in spite of what looked like the cusp of death!

Sometimes all we need is a new environment, a little more light, some nourishment, and the willingness to let God co-garden with us.  Growth doesn’t always happen in the living room where everyone can see it.  Sometimes it happens in the quiet corners—the bathroom windows of our lives—where we dare to let the light in and stay consistent.

The brown spots don’t mean it’s over.  They just mean transformation is happening.  And if you hang in there, one day you’ll see new leaves sprouting too. They’re just part of the process that makes room for the new!

And isn’t that just like us? 

The NEW leaf sprouting on my Fiddle Leaf Fig...

🌟 Lessons my fiddle leaf fig taught me:

1. Sometimes I start a process in life without God!  I decide something, I just do it, and I go to God when I see that; mmmm, no wait a minute, this thing ain’t working!  When the bible says seek ye first the kingdom…this is what I remembered.

2. Sometimes God has to uproot me from familiar ground and place me where I can truly thrive.  This reminds me to take up space, stretch toward the light, and grow unapologetically.

3. There is a mandated routine to life, for my fiddle leaf fig it is to add in—water plus one teaspoon of fertilizer—a dose of sunlight, a pinch of moonlight, consistent prayer…and physical touch has allowed it to produce fresh new greener leaves. 

   For me, there’s a rhythm: a little water, a little fertilizer, consistently.  That’s prayer.  That’s word.  That’s worship.  Not in one overwhelming flood, but in steady doses that sustain my roots.  This mirrors my soul’s call to orient toward higher truth, divine love, or inner light.

4. RESILIENCE, cycles of death and rebirth, and the idea that struggle is part of strength-building!  This said to me, I can always make a different CHOICE even at the cusp of death because what looks like loss is often the making of room for resurrection!!

5. While lush and dramatic, its leaves bruise easily, showing both strength and fragility.  This reminded me that while I am strong, I can be both weak & fragile at times, however, the lushness of the Spirit within me allows me to continue to grow and glow!

6. The joy of witnessing my fiddle leaf fig whispers this to me every morning: my life is an instrument, and when attuned to Spirit(to the LIGHT), I play a song that blesses the world.‼️🌸

💭Now, it’s your turn to reflect:

1. Can you identify what is dying a slow death in your life?

2. Do you have a Spiritual practice…a routine, a dash of prayer, a pinch of meditation, a sprinkle of praise and worship daily?

3. Is it time to make a different choice, reposition, let light in?

4. Or do you just need to stay still, stay consistent, appreciating the little things?

5. What is the garden of your soul calling for?  How are you watering the garden of your soul?

A Fiddle Leaf Fig can be seen as a practice in:

• Patience (not forcing growth).

• Attention (listening to what needs adjusting—light, water, soil).

• Surrender (trusting its natural rhythm).

• Co-creation (partnering with the Author of life to sustain beauty).

🌱 A tree can survive many things, but not without consistent exposure to light.  Neither can we, without the Presence of God!

Psalm 1:2-3 in the Amplified Bible version says…

² But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night. ³ And he will be like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season; Its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers [and comes to maturity].

So, affirm to yourself today: the brown leaves in my life do not disqualify me.  The things that have fallen off are not the end.  I am being repotted, repositioned, and pruned.  New Growth, Abundance, & Prosperity are certain!   And So, It Is!

Just stay by the window of His light, being fertilized by His Presence, while you keep drinking from the well of His water, and you will never thirst!  Indeed, you will see new leaves (life) sprouting in due season‼️‼️✨ 

🍃 Food for the Soul:

 “I am the true Vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that continues to bear fruit, He [repeatedly] prunes, so that it will bear more fruit [even richer and finer fruit]. - Jesus (John 15:1-2)