Redemption

A half-remembered from childhood verse from the bible: "the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone (or capstone - translations vary)". Originally in the Hebrew scriptures, it probably refers to the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, and symbolises the idea that humans may have had their plans, but those of the sky god may be different, and they take precedence in the end

The verse is quoted by the writers of the Christian gospels - put in the mouth of Jesus himself, speaking self-referentially. In this reading, he was rejected by the Jewish establishment but, nevertheless, became the 'cornerstone' of the new, post-crucifiction, relationship between god and those who accept Jesus' resurrection and divinity

Make of that what you will. The magic of the Internet is that you can track this stuff down, even when you can't really remember it. It came vaguely and incoherently to mind as I was scrabbling in the shadows behind the shed (today's sunlight has been blindingly bright; I don't know what has made it so - I don't think it's supernatural) trying to see what has happened to the plants that I hauled out of the pond in the spring - because I decided it was too crowded and they were too aggressive

I discarded them into sundry buckets and boxes and consigned them to summer-long neglect that can't even be described as 'benign'. Well, they haven't exactly become cornerstones, but they are flourishing and flowering, and just as happy as anything in the official pond. There is a parable in there somewhere