Easter and Resurrection Fern

Today is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter.

God in His wisdom has filled nature with

images of Christ's resurrection, a miracle

the human mind has difficulty comprehending.

One of the most beautiful pictures of rebirth

I have found is that of Resurrection Fern.

Here are some shriveled, dried fronds of

this fern that I obtained by setting up a 

ladder on an ancient tree on our property.

After a few hours without life-giving water,

the ferns seemingly "give up the ghost."

Their former beauty is gone; they

lose their appeal.

In recent blogs I showed you abundant

arrays of this unique plant at Raven 

Rock State Park.

This delicate plant does no harm to its host,

contrary to what one might expect.  It is an

epiphyte, drawing its moisture from the air

as well as from the moist crevices of the tree.

This amazing plant has even been taken on

a space shuttle mission so that its remarkable

regeneration could be observed.

Scientists estimate that the fern could go

one hundred years without water and fully

revive with just one soaking.  At the end of

this blog, take a peek to see if the ferns in

the very first pictures can come back to life.

Of course, the season of spring in its entirety

also pictures Christ's resurrection.  Seeds,

which can only be utilized, not created by man,

germinate and become adult plants in God's time.

Trees which lay bare in the harsh winter are

found not to be dead, merely dormant.  I

pointed this out over and over again to children

on the Farm Life Nature Trail yesterday.

It never ceases to amaze me, and I hope they

grasp the importance of the miracles that abound.

In the picture below, a Cinnamon Fern is in the

background, while the little "fiddletops" of more

ferns appear in the foreground.  Yet even this

magnificent display can't match the rebirth trick

of Resurrection Fern.  So hurry along to my 

final pictures.

Here are the same ferns that were dry

and shriveled in my first pictures.  They were

immersed in water for three hours. They 

have been given the gift of new life.

And Easter reminds us that the same 

gift has been offered to us all.  It's the

greatest gift I've ever received.