By Diana Kim

I was gifted an orchid plant at the beginning of the year. I thought that I would be able to easily take care of the orchid, but it didn’t go as planned. It lasted about six months, which is pretty good for me. Perhaps I overwatered it. Perhaps I placed it in a space where it got too much direct sunlight. One by one, the flowers started to wilt and fall off. Even the big leaves started to turn brown. I thought that the orchid was dead and so I was ready to throw it away.

But my grandmother, who has an amazing green thumb, said that there was still life in the plant. She said that she could see buds starting to form in various areas of the stem. I couldn’t see it, but it didn’t hurt to have her care for it. My grandmother trimmed the roots and repotted the orchid; she cut some of the dead branches and took off the brown leaves. She placed the orchid outside under a table so that it could get indirect sunlight and lots of air.

Slowly, new buds started to form. Branches began to extend beyond the table. New leaves started to pop out. Today, the there are five fully formed orchid flowers (as big as my hand!) with seven bulbs ready to blossom in due time. 

When news and media bombards us with stories of pain and suffering, of mistrust and fake news, of corruption and deception, it is easy to become jaded. We begin to think that there is no hope. It is easy to be critical of anything and everything: ecological degradation, economy and the “free” market, health care, politics, monopolization of businesses and industries, homelessness, welfare, etc.

But if we fail to recognize the good, no matter how small, we are willing to consider all of it a loss and throw it away. Nothing is perfect, but it is in striving to be better and to make adjustments that we have hope.

Many years ago, a student asked me how I know that God is real. Rather than quoting Scripture or explaining miracles, I simply stated “hope.” Without God — the One who is all good, all powerful, all loving — there would be no hope in this world. When I look out into the world, I see so much hurt, so much pain, so much suffering. It is easy to think that the world is doomed and that there is no recovery for humanity.

But the fact that we have hope, the fact that we can change for the better, that we can grow and help others, is proof for me that God is real. And because God is real, I can have hope and trust that though the world may look like it is dying, there are buds growing, flowers ready to emerge.

Diana Kim is a pastor of a local Korean church in Torrance, CA. Her primary goals in serving are to teach and equip the next generation to be passionate for Jesus and to live out His passion and care for the world. Diana is currently a PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary and is majoring in Christian Ethics. Her current research area of interest is Asian American feminist ethics.