“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” —Matthew 23:12

In the heart of an ancient Kingdom, there was a beautiful garden. And there, in the cool of the day, the Master of the garden would walk. Of all the plants of the garden, the most beautiful was the gracious and noble bamboo. Year after year, the bamboo grew and would dance and play in the wind, tossing and swaying and leaping and bowing with joyous abandon. This delighted everyone but especially the Master of the garden.

Now, one day the Master contemplated his Bamboo with eyes of curious expectancy.

He decided to cut his beloved bamboo down to serve a greater purpose.

So, the Master of the garden took the stately Bamboo…

and cut it down…

and hacked off its branches…

and stripped off its leaves…

and split it in two…

and cut out the heart of the bamboo.

Lifting the bamboo gently, the Master carried it to where there was a spring of fresh, sparkling water in the midst of his dry fields. Then, putting one end of the broken Bamboo in the spring and the other end into the water channel in the field, the Master gently laid down his beloved Bamboo… And the spring sang a song of welcome as the clear sparkling waters raced joyously down the channel of the bamboo’s body into the waiting fields.

The rice was planted, the days went by, and the shoots grew and a bountiful harvest came to the great delight of everyone.

It was then that the Bamboo, once so glorious in his stately beauty, realized the Master’s purpose.

The bamboo became yet more glorious in his brokenness and humility. In his original beauty, the bamboo tossed and danced about with abandon, but in his brokenness he became a channel of abundant life for everything and everyone in the Master’s garden.

We are like the bamboo. We only realize our full potential when we let the Lord use our brokenness to serve His higher purpose. For whoever humbles himself will be exalted.