Words Can Hurt Object Lesson

Mimosa Pudica Plant

Also known as "Sensitive Plant"  

I came across this marvelous plant in Houston, TX, when I was visiting there. A friend took me to the Brookwood Community, "a nonprofit, residential facility and vocational program for adult with disabilities."  This place was incredible! To learn more about it or visit there, go to www.brookwoodcommunity.org.  You will be glad you did.

While I was there, I ventured into their garden shop and found the most incredible plants.  I had to purchase some, not only because they were absolutely gorgeous but because everything I purchased there benefited these fantastic adults with disabilities.

This one particular plant caught my attention because of its potential for an object lesson in Bible class.  This plant is very sensitive.  When you touch a leaf (pictured below), it's self defense mechanism immediately kicks in.  That causes the leaf to close up fairly quickly and the stem to wilt giving the predator the impression that it is dead. Therefore, it would not be worth eating!  Pretty cool.

Close up view of the wilted leaf.

If you touch very many of the leaves, the whole plant looks distressed and totally wilted like this. You can view this short video to see what the sensitive plant does when it is touched. After about an hour, the plant will recover to look full and beautiful again.

In Bible class, we will pretend that the plant is Jesus.  Every time we sin, it is like someone touching a leaf and hurting Jesus.  The more sin we have (or the more people who sin), the more hurt Jesus feels.  

Another way to use this plant to talk about how our words affect other people. If you say something negative to someone, call them names, or lie to them, it would be like touching one or two of the leaves.  When touched in that way, they wilt.  People are like that.  When we say ugly things to them, they wilt on the inside.  When other people say something negative to that person or you say more negative things to them, more of their leaves and stems wilt. Pretty soon, not only is that person wilting on the inside, you can also see that person looking sad and wilted on the outside.

The good news is that over time, if the negative (touching the plant) is taken away and mostly positive things are there (living like Christ), the person (and the plant) can recover and be like new.