Ynes lay where she had fallen. Her hand ached. Breathing hurt. She knew she had broken some ribs. She berated herself for falling. Here she was, a woman in her mid-fifties, out here in the wilderness with Roxana Ferris, one of the world’s leading botanists. Now, less than halfway through her first plant-collecting expedition, she had gone and fallen off a cliff.

Ynes Mexia was no stranger to either riding high or falling low. Born in 1870, her life was full of ups and downs. She grew up with wealth, status, and privilege. When she was quite young, both her parents died, leaving her heir to a sizeable estate, which she managed well.

Widowed in her 30s, she remarried — a disastrous mistake that left her psychologically scarred, suffering from extreme emotional trauma for over ten years.

In her 50s, she discovered a love for botany. This launched a passion that took her from the wilds of Alaska to the Amazon and lasted until the end of her life.

Ynes became one of the most skilled plant collectors in the world, collecting over 150,000 specimens in the next two decades. Many of them were new to science, including one that bears her name: the mimosa mexiae, a plant she found on that first, ill-fated trip.

Sometimes when we are knocked down and brought low, God blesses us in ways He could never have done had we not first been humbled.