A true short story of what it takes to grow and harvest the black bamboo. A story that will astonish all who hear it. A great analogy to the Latter Day Restoration of the Gospel.  

I love it when I come across a story where I learn something new that involves ordinary people. A story that leaves me in awe of the people involved and the lesson that is taught.

This is one of those stories.

THE BLACK BAMBOO

Among the many varieties of bamboo grown in China, there is the beautiful black bamboo.  Black bamboo will spread very quickly from a grown plant, but to grow and harvest black bamboo from seed is another matter entirely. 

Jim Cecil, author and motivational speaker, tells of a time when he was visiting China for a conference; he was offered a personal tour of a black bamboo farm. This special species of bamboo is vital in the economic development and construction in China especially with China’s rapid population growth but you wouldn’t know by looking at some of their fields.

Let me share with you straight from Jim’s article:

“Extending as far as the eye could see was an empty field of rich, black, tilled earth. Not a single bamboo plant was in sight, not even a tree. Peter [our guide] explained to us that the field had been sown a few weeks prior.

Each of over a thousand farmers [carrying] a heavy satchel of seeds, water and fertilizer on their backs. [They would place one seed at a time in the ground followed by] a deep drink of water and a handful of fertilizer from [their] heavy satchel.

The process of watering and fertilizing is ritually carried out weekly on a seed by seed basis for nearly five years. No heavy machines, no modern irrigation equipment just individual farmers carefully tending the individual needs of each seedling in the field.

About a mile down the dusty road was a field that Peter told us had been sown two years prior. When we reached our destination, we were surprised to see what looked to us like thousands of farmers working in an empty field.

Our big surprise was when Peter told us that every week, up until the 11 month of the 5th year the bamboo fields appeared visually barren. In the 12th month of the 5th year the black bamboo would suddenly sprout and very rapidly grow up to 60 feet in just under 30 days.”

I used this story in a lesson on the Restoration. After reading this story, I shared the following:

In Amos 8: 11-12 it reads:

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:  And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.”

For nearly 2,000 years this famine persisted.  The true church was missing from the earth.  During this time period, however, hundreds of years before the gospel was restored, the Lord planted seeds and began to water and feed them.  Long, long before Joseph Smith was born, world events helped to prepare the soil for the sprouting of the Restoration.

Can you name some of these preparations that took place?

(Answers could include the Renaissance, the invention of the printing press, the translation of the Bible into everyday language, the Reformers, the discovery and colonization of America, the Constitution of the United States, and the preparation of individuals such as the Smith family.)

What a testimony builder of the Lord’s hand throughout the history of the world. May we take the time to appreciate and be grateful for all the Lord does for us and in what He did do in preparing the way for the restoration of the gospel in these latter days.

Yours truly,

I adapted this story from Nancy W. Jensen’s Blog

http://gospeldoctrineplus.blogspot.com/2013/01/doctrine-and-covenants-lesson-3-i-had.html

You used to be able to read Jim Cecil’s story from his website but it has since been taken down. You can learn more about Jim Cecil by clicking HERE

Another powerful lesson I think we can learn from this story is PATIENCE – the longer you wait the greater your reward. 

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