The Parable of the Oregano

I have  pots of oregano in my kitchen window. I call it my indoor herb garden. Seeing my plants relaxes me. Oregano comes from the word “oros” meaning mountain and “ganos” meaning joy. No wonder it gives me so much joy to have it around the house.  Oregano is natural medicine for my family. It is works very well to lower fever and alleviate common cough and cold. It is also good for toothache, is anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer with scientific studies around the world backing up its potency.

Because I only have four small pots of it, I reserve it for when my little ones need them to relieve fever, coughs or colds, which I’m grateful to say do not happen often. Instead of taking paracetamol, we crush the leaves and put them on the forehead or nappy area of the child with fever. Within hours, fevers break and infection is gone. We steam the leaves, crush it and give the juice to treat cough or cold.

Last December, the man who fixed our sink saw my oregano and asked for a couple of leaves as he had a bad cough. We gave him what he needed without thinking much about it.

About a week after that, I noticed that the same plant had grown thrice the leaves that it had! Plucking out those three leaves effectively pruned the plant! I was amused. To me, it spoke so eloquently of the biblical principle of multiplication and reciprocity.

Jesus said, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” -Luke 6:38

Solomon also made an observation in Proverbs 11:24 that people who give freely

t gain even more, yet those who withhold unduly comes to poverty.”

My oregano became an object lesson to my family not to be afraid to be generous, because God is extravagantly and outrageously so and He wants His people to be a channel of His many blessings.