In my Biology class this year, our lab groups designed experiments with different plants. My group decided to try growing beans in with different methods. We planted one in soil, one in water, and sprayed the other's roots with water. The first two did awesome, and grew over 12 inches. But the one with the sprayed roots was on the verge of death.

I almost threw it away, but thought, "What's the harm? Let's try to bring it back."

I took it home and pampered that thing like crazy! I set it up with a little heat lamp, nice potting soil, misted it daily. Heck, I even named the thing and started reading to it.

For a while it seemed like it might make it. It stayed greenish anyway. But it never improved. Despite all the effort I put into it, and plant's roots just weren't strong enough.

I thought of a neat metaphor as I was taking care of this plant. It didn't know who I was or how blessed it was. I was always looking out for it, thinking about it, taking care of it. But the bean didn't know.

God and Jesus are always doing everything they can to make us stronger and better. They care so much. But a lot of the time, we don't know it's them.

That bean didn't make it. It's roots were rotted, and I couldn't change that. It made me so sad to see that all of my work had been for nothing, because it was too late for the bean to come back.

But people aren't like that. It's never too late for us to be saved, and we always have someone watching our back.

God can't force us to believe. He can't change our hearts for us. We have to do it. We have to change our hearts. And then we'll see how blessed we were the whole time.