Yucca Plants and the Human Soul

Yucca plant

Genesis 1:31 "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good."
 

This is the yucca plant in my back yard.  There is no reason that it should be there, let alone flowering nicely, because I tried my best to kill it.
 

Two years ago it was an ugly pile of half-brown leaves and no flowers and I decided to dig it up.  A friend and I spent almost three hours on the task--the plant was huge.  We got rid of every green (and brown) thing, and then we got down to the root.  I don't know if you can eat yucca root, but if you could, this root could easily have fed a family of six.  We hacked and we dug and we pulled out piece after piece until we could see no more.  And we thought it was over.
 

The next year, it grew back...new, fresh-green, lovely white flowers.  This year it was even better, adding the third stalk without my doing anything to it whatsoever.  I gave it no fertilizer, no water apart from the rain...it just came back to strong and vibrant life from the tiny bit of good root left.  (We won't talk about what happened to the plants that I did try to tend...)
 

The yucca plant now serves to remind me of one of the most basic aspects of my faith--my belief in the words of Genesis 1:31, that Creation is, at its core, good.  Some faith traditions believe that because of the sin of Adam and Eve the core of humanity became sinful and needs to be fundamentally altered.  I believe, with the Methodists, that the good and pure image of God remains at the human core--tarnished to be sure, but not gone.  I believe the core of the human soul needs freeing and polishing, not replacing.
 

The yucca plant I first encountered was in bad shape.  It was ugly, half-dead, and produced no fruit.  In my rush to judgment, I decided to dig it up and throw it out.  But somewhere left underground was a tiny sliver of good root.  Freed from all the diseased and fruitless baggage, it could grow into its true self, and it came back in full glory.
 

I believe that is our story as well.  Across the years, our lives can sometimes become pretty ugly.  We do things we shouldn't and parts of us die as a result.  We get choked off by the invasive vines of fun but meaningless pursuits and our leaves get infested with the parasites of greed and lethargy.  Soon our fruit suffers.  We produce only an occasional flower or in some cases cease to blossom at all.
 

At those times, it's easy for others to look at us and decide we're hopeless--that we should be dug up and thrown out.  And if we are in a flowering stage of life, it is easy for us to want to be rid of the other person who seems to be a blight on our garden.  If we believe the core of the human soul is corrupt, there is nothing to be done but to destroy it.  But I think the yucca tells a different story.

The yucca needed redemption...no question.  It was a blight on the landscape as it was.  But it didn't need destruction; it needed some serious pruning.  It took others sweat and heavy labor to get down to the good core.  In fact, there was so little good, we couldn't even see there was any left.  We know them:  The addict on the doorstep of the detox unit; the convicted felon hearing the prison gate clang shut; the person who has lived life fast and hard and finally hits a wall--it seems the life is wasted.  Dig it up.  Throw it out.
 

But God saw all that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.  Nothing can undo the goodness of God.  Our sin, however great, is not greater than God's goodness.  Although it may be deeply hidden in a steel casing of pure evil, if that casing can be removed, the good can grow again.  We can't always see it, but it is there.  Or so my yucca plant tells me.