Lessons from a Christmas Cactus

My Christmas cactus didn’t bloom for years.  When it did, I learned some lessons about having patience and not judging others.

Christmas cactus. Photo by Tom Faletti, 19 Dec. 2025.

Many years ago, one of my students gave me a Christmas cactus as a Christmas present.

I had never heard of a Christmas cactus.  For years, it didn’t bloom, and I was unimpressed.  But my wife kept watering it, year after year.

Then, a few winters ago, it bloomed.  And again the next year.  And I began to understand.

The photo above shows what it looks like this year.  When it blooms, it produces beautiful red flowers out of the ends of what look like dark green leaves that are actually stems composed of segments of leaflike pads.

What an amazing plant!  (And did you know that a Christmas cactus – the genus Schlumbergera – can live for 100 years or more?)

Lessons from a Christmas cactus

Maybe life is like a Christmas cactus.

Maybe some of the people that seem unimpressive to us are just not ready yet.  They will have their seasons of glory, if we wait.

Maybe I should be less quick to make judgements.

Judge not

Jesus says, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matt. 7:1, ESV).

It’s easy to judge others based on where they are at this particular moment in their lives – to fail to see the whole story.

Like the Christmas cactus, I too have times when I am not blooming and am less impressive. The Christmas cactus tells me not to judge.

Jesus connects our willingness to forego judgment of others with God’s willingness to forego judgment of us.  He says that the standard I use to judge others is the standard by which I will be judged: “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you” (Matt. 7:2, ESV).  (The ESV translation captures Jesus’s literal words especially well here.)

If you consider the analogy of a trial in a courtroom, Jesus is saying that the same judgment that I use to weigh other people’s behavior will be used to judge me.

That means: If I expect 100% perfection from others, 100% perfection will be required of me.  If I expect that other people will never put their own interests first, I must never put my own interests first.  If I expect others to be a perfect 10, I will be judged by the same scoring system.

God is patient with us

The Christmas cactus offers a second lesson.

God does not demand that the Christmas cactus bloom on someone’s schedule.

God waits patiently for us to become what he has made us to be.  The Bible speaks repeatedly of God’s patience:

“The Lord . . . is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NRSV).

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Psalm 103:8; see also Ex. 34:6).

Paul says that God’s patience is an example for us (1 Tim. 1:16) and that those who put their faith in God receive patience as a fruit of the Holy Spirit who lives within us (Gal. 5:22).

Our calling is to keep persevering in loving others, to keep being patient with them as God is, and to keep choosing not to become the judge of others, which is not our job.

If  we remain patient and avoid judging, we may see beautiful blooms in due time.