The Tale of 2 Plants

I bought 2 beautiful hanging baskets of petunias for my front porch area. They were nearly identical when I brought them home- full with lots of beautiful flowers and healthy. I put one on the hook at the top of my porch and the other on a shepherd's hook in the mulch beside the porch. Within 2 weeks, they looked like completely different plants.
I suddenly realized that God was showing me something... (one of my favorite proverbs is 24:32"I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw.") One way I have heard the Lord speak to me is by observing his creation... I've heard him talk to me about people or situations in my life or His own character using grass, a blue spruce, the nature preserve woods that I visit, the ocean, the sun and clouds, the moon, the stars, the confluence of 2 rivers, my garden, etc. I'm sure I could keep going.
But this time it's the petunia plants...back to the plants...

The plants both received water from me - plenty to flourish - but here was what I saw:

The one hanging partially covered by the porch

• Was very slow to bloom again
• Began to "look" down at the ground, drooping and losing volume at the top
• Was still green and alive - but was losing its beauty

The one on the hook was full and voluminous, had many stems reaching upward toward the sky and was FULL of blossoms.

The different was light. The fullness of the sun. God was trying to show me that the amount of light and the fullness of the light really matters...not to the plants being alive, but to them being ALL they can be; being beautiful. I buy the petunias to give my home beauty, not to just be green and alive (I have bushes and trees for that). It's the fullness of the light that lets them be beautiful - and beauty is their purpose.

Here's a few verses on light (a few of the MANY). These tell me that the Lord is the light. That light = life. That the purpose of our life is to glorify Him (i.e. produce beauty!).

Isaiah 60:1 "Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you."
John 1:4 "In him was life and that life was the light of men."
Matthew 5:15-16: "...Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven."

I also got curious about whether the Bible talks about blooming plants...and here's what I found:

Psalm 144 (parts): "What is man that you care for him? The son of man that you think of him?...Part your heavens Lord and come down...Reach down your hand from on-high...Deliver me and rescue me... Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nutured plants..."

I would say that a well-nutured plants is watered, groomed, trimmed and given plenty of LIGHT. So I also think God is telling me that the one plant is a picture of how my sons will look if I raise them with His light and care...full of blossoms and very obviously beautiful.

I still like the placement of these 2 plants around my porch - so I switched them to give the sad one some time on the shepherd's hook. It's reaching for the sky now...not blooming again quite yet but I have hope. And I guess in a few weeks I'll have to switch them back! I'll keep you posted.