AT THE SCENT OF WATER

There’s a moringa tree in my compound that was never really planted, it just showed up.

A few years ago, when Nigerians discovered moringa, it became the miracle tree. Everybody was talking about it, everybody was planting it, it suddenly became the solution to everything from health, strength, healing and weight.

For a while, it felt like moringa was the answer we had all been looking for.

That season soon blew over and when the excitement faded, people started noticing something else.

Moringa trees make a mess, leaves everywhere. The compound never really looks clean. What once looked like a blessing started to feel like stress.

So we cut one of the trees down, at that point, it felt like the logical thing to do.

When something becomes unwanted, it’s interesting how quickly things can change.

Something that once felt valuable can suddenly feel inconvenient, something that once felt like an answer can start to feel like a burden and without thinking too deeply, we remove it.

We cut it down and moved on, so we thought.

The part we didn’t plan is that one day, we needed something to support a plant in the compound. There was no strong wood around to use as a stake, then someone remembered the moringa tree we had cut, we took a piece of it not even fresh and pushed it into the soil.

No paparazzi, no intention to plant anything, just a practical decision of helping a desired plant to grow.

We dug the ground a bit, placed it there, covered it, and left it just for stamina. For a while, nothing happened, I It looked exactly like what it was, simply a dry stick in the ground.

Then something changed, after some time, I noticed something growing there.

Small shoots, traces of life which no one paid attention to and I remember asking myself, “Where did this come from?”

We didn’t plant anything here, then it hit me that the piece of moringa we used was not dead.

Immediately, a scripture came to mind. Job 14:7 For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, And that its tender shoots will not cease

That phrase stayed with me was at the scent of water, not even water in abundance. Water has a scent, that scent is was drives drought and scarcity away.

Just the presence of it, just proximity to water…

Something in it still knew how to live, I started thinking about that stem. It was cut down, dry amd discarded.

Then suddenly placed back into soil, soil that carries moisture, soil that holds life and something in it responded. The tree didn’t argue, it didn’t struggle, it didn’t try to prove anything, it simply connected again and life started flowing.

Maybe the real issue is that sometimes, what we think is death is actually disconnection.

We assume something is finished, we assume something is over but the truth is, it may just be disconnected from its source and the moment it reconnects, everything changes.

We think we need more. The thinking of we need more effort, more opportunities, more exposure, more support, more everything but sometimes, what we actually need is less of that and more of something else.

Connection is what is needed, connection back to the right source and back to the place where life flows from.

Jesus already said it simply, a branch cannot produce anything by itself unless it remains connected to the vine. The problem is not always the branch, sometimes the issue is what it is connected to or what it is no longer connected to.

What struck me the most is that moringa stem didn’t struggle to grow, it didn’t force anything, it just stayed in the right environment and life did what life knows how to do.

That’s something we don’t talk about enough, growth is not always about striving, sometimes it’s about staying, staying where life is and staying long enough.

There are seasons when things don’t go the way you planned, things end, opportunities close, expectations fail and it can feel like something in you has been cut off and cut down.

But that scripture says something different, there is hope for a tree, not because it was never cut but because it can live again.

What matters most is not how badly it was cut, not how long it stayed dry, not how people saw it.

What matters is this: Is it connected? The truth if it is, life can still flow.

One more thing, this idea goes beyond just personal growth even systems work this way. Anything connected to the wrong source will eventually produce the wrong results.

You can’t stay connected to dysfunction and expect health, you can’t build on a broken foundation and expect stability.

Connection determines outcome.

That moringa tree taught me something, life is still there, even when it doesn’t look like it.

But life needs connection.

You may feel like something in your life has been cut down.

You may feel disconnected, dry, or uncertain.

But if you find your way back to the right source, something in you will respond again.

•Where in my life do I feel disconnected right now?

•What am I currently drawing my strength from?

•What would it look like to return to the right source?