Tale of the Stow Away Pineapple Plant

While we were camping out at our church, shortly following Hurricane Katrina, Someone brought us some fresh pineapples. They were a God send. Don't get me wrong, we appreciated all of the meals provided even if they were things like Vienna sausages and cold Raviolis straight out of a can. Though we weren't starving, real produce seemed like a miracle. We made short work of cutting and serving said pineapples. As we were discarding the juicy remains my daughter dove into the trash and carefully hoisted out a pineapple top. She quickly ran and scratched out a little hole next to the side door of our church and tenderly put the decapitated fruit to rest. Some of the other children knocked it over and Eloise cried and quickly replanted it. After a couple of days and several episodes of this event I finally told her that she couldn't guard the plant for the rest of her life-besides the thing look dried up and dead- and that she would have to throw it away. She proclaimed that I was wrong and that her pineapple would live. I forgot about it.......

...She didn't. It turns out that she hid the top in one of my flower planters outside of our temporary living quarters. A couple of months later I was sitting outside when I noticed this green thing poking up out of the middle of my flowers-What in the world could- it was the lonely little pineapple plant. My daughter had been secretly caring for it all of this time. Since then she has rescued two more pineapple tops. At first she would run outside every day to see if there was a baby pineapple. I got on the net and read up on pineapple plants. I had to break the news to her that many commercially bought pineapples will grow a plant, but will not flower or fruit without the use of strong chemicals. Her resolve was unwavering. So any way here we are almost four years later and my husband calls to me, "come see." When I walked out the back door this is what I found:

No, it's not a pineapple yet. It is a flower, but not just a flower. It is a testimony to the simple faith and persistence of a child.