The seeds of the lotus are found in the mud, surrounded by insects and foul swamp water. Most other life forms can’t grow in this environment. But the lotus struggles and finds nutrients and grows despite adverse conditions. The lotus stem looks like a slippery worm as it grows against opposition from its watery world. It seeks the light, pushing ever upward through impossible conditions. It climbs through the darkness seeking the light, reaching the surface, it bursts into bloom, one of the most beautiful flowers in all of God’s creation.
The world can be like a swamp. Sin is rampant, darkness abounds. People do awful things to each other. And still, light and love are available. But you have to seek it. Some people prefer to stay in the mud at the bottom, wallowing in bitterness, stubbornly defensive, casting blame and feeding on darkness. Others refuse to stay down in the muck and mire and courageously rise, enduring the travail, growing stronger and wiser for it, understanding their God-given potential for an amazing life. We see them and celebrate. They are like the gorgeous lotus flower.
Just to mention a few I’ve known —
An illegal immigrant’s son who worked his way through college to become the executive of a charitable NGO.
A sex trafficked survivor who is an activist and board member of a foundation fighting sex trafficking.
A family who had nothing but the ground to sleep on and a tent to keep the rain off who ended up with a successful forty-acre farm.
A boy who went to sea at ten and traveled the world and became a successful draftsman.
A girl from a family of alcoholics who earned a doctorate and became a professor teaching doctors.
A boy passed from family to family as an unpaid laborer who jumped a train, lived as a hobo and ended up running an international airline.
Real people. Overcomers. Lotus flowers.