Bloom

In my neck of the woods, it had been cold and snowy. And then suddenly we woke up one day last week and it felt like spring again!  It seems a little soon to write about blooming, but it is also hopeful. I hope it brings you hope as well if you feel you have been in a season of hiding. Not isolation but intentional close connection with the Lord. 

Bloom where you are planted.

A few months ago, I heard the Lord speak this into my heart. My daughter and I grew a garden last summer for the second time. We grew tomatoes, basil, strawberries, lettuce and mint. And I added a little pot of carrots on our deck. That was on a whim, really. And I actually read later that I planted it too early! Garden newbie here!  But nonetheless, it made its way in our collection of growing plants. I had a busy summer before last, so my daughter took primary care of the garden and she did a great job! This last summer, she was involved in some camps and other activities and I became the primary care giver. 

As I already shared, I was new to this gardening thing. So I watched many youtube videos on the proper act of pruning, as the tomato plant began to grow and take over our humble little garden. And every time I would prune another growing stem in between the real fruit, I thought about our Gardener. How well he knows what to prune and what to allow to grow. He knows what robs the plant of the nutrients and what helps it to flourish. But what about the season of fruit that you can’t see yet? 

While the tomato plant was growing to overextended lengths beyond our garden’s tiny capacity, the little carrot pot was growing sweet little leaves from the surface of the soil. Though I couldn’t see the carrot growing under the surface, I was hoping one day I would. I felt as though I was not watering much of anything at times. But in the midst of the faithful watering something was happening under the surface. I just couldn’t see it yet and at the proper time, some day I would start to see some orange come up to the surface in order for me to harvest those carrot babies.  

God gave me another kind of funny analogy with fruit. It was a pineapple upside down cake! I have no idea why this was the picture he gave me, other than I have been watching A LOT of baking shows with my daughter. When a pineapple upside down cake is baking, the fruit is sitting at the very bottom of the pan. Glancing from the top, you would not even know it is there. But after the cake is baked and removed from the pan, it is flipped and the fruit is resting beautifully at the top of the cake. It was always meant to be there and makes the cake what it is. As it bakes, the fruit is just too heavy for it to exist at the surface while it's baking. The deep work under the surface can seem heavy, but so necessary for the fruit to be at its peak. 

There are two things that I feel I can take away from these analogies that the Lord has drawn my attention to. On one hand, in order for me to bloom where I am planted, I have to make the best of the circumstances now. I know this is not where I remain and I know there is more. But if I keep thinking about the next step and the next place where I will be, I will miss out on what God is doing now and what he is doing in and through me in the city I live in, in the neighborhood I live in, and in the church I go to. It means taking the time to nurture the friendships in my life that God has put around me. I keep praying for the next step of what I need to do to get where I feel God wants me to be and he is telling me to bloom right where I am and somehow that fruit is what is going to help make the future fruit grow. 

And on the other hand, at the proper time the fruit will be visible. I don’t have to rush that. The Gardener knows what He is doing. I can trust his perfect timing. I tend to want to see results because I can be a slow starter, but I love to finish! I like the finish line and I like knowing that my labor is leading to something. But then somehow the beauty of the journey is lost in that. And that is where the growth and the true display of faith really happens. There is beauty in the hidden time with the Lord. This can be a sweet time for the Lord to store so much in us. When we store His Word, courage, and wisdom in our hearts, it becomes like fertilizer in the soil—strengthening the fruit so it can flourish, prosper and endure opposition. A word that I felt the Lord put on my heart a few years ago is what I can circle back to in this. His words to me were Trust the Gardner. So that is what I will do as I anticipate the moment when the fruit will rise to the surface. I am right where I need to be and God has always had me. I just have to trust him as the Gardener and for now, my job is to bloom where I am.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the Word I have spoken to you. Remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. -John 15: 1-7