Blooming Where We are Planted

I was recently asked to do a devotional column for a local monthly magazine. This is my first one, published in June's "Living Today". The column title will be "Today's Devotion"  

I will post them here in case you can't get your hands on the magazine. They are free at many businesses in six counties of Northwest Ohio.

Blooming Where We are Planted                    

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow,

so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”

Isaiah 61:11 (NIV)

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            Summer is here! Finally! And for those of us who garden, the green beans are blooming and the flowers are in full color; our gardens are a place of beauty and life.  If you don’t have a garden of your own, pack up the kids or grandkids and go visit one!

            One day very soon, I am going to drive to the Toledo Botanical Gardens and I don’t care how much it cost for gasoline to go!

            The Botanical Gardens is one of the prettiest spots in Northwest Ohio. I discovered it about seven years ago and have visited it every season since. Sometimes I go alone and sometimes I take a grandchild or two with me. Every time I am there I think of the Garden of Eden. I am sure my favorite garden is not as magnificent as that first garden God planted but it is very nice, for a man made one.

            When I go alone, after I have seen all of the flowers, I like to find a bench down by the pond and watch the swans. But my favorite thing to do is watch the people who are visiting the gardens.  I wonder who they are, where they are from and what their circumstances in life are. I wonder if are happy people or sad, and whether they feel loved. I wonder why they decided to visit the gardens on the same day I did.

Like the beauty of the plants that makes up a botanical garden, people make up God’s garden, His world. We are all as varied as the flowers, bushes and trees in my favorite garden. We are of different ages, have been raised in different environments and have had both good and bad experiences and care in those environments.  We are alike in only one way; we are loved by the One who created us.  

There are times in our lives when we find ourselves planted in an area of the garden that we don’t like. It can be because the environment doesn’t seem right for us, or we may not like what (or who) is planted next to us. Sometimes the storms of life beat us down and we wonder if we will survive in our place in the garden. It is then that we cry out to God, begging him to save us or move us to a part of the garden that is safer or more beautiful. But God says, “No, I want you right where I have planted you! I need you there and you need to be there. I want you to bloom where you are planted.”

Not only does God want us to bloom, he expects us to bear fruit. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control.”  Unlike the fruit trees that bear fruit in only one season, we are expected to bear fruit throughout all of the seasons of our lives.

For those of you who garden, you know that the harvest is usually better if the plants get sufficient water. Without it, they curl up and die. Reading God's Word daily is like the gentle morning shower that we need to grow and mature spiritually. I would encourage you to find your Bible, open it and read it. It will nurture your soul.

 And I pray today that you will bloom in the garden where God has planted you. 

© 2011 Brenda J. Young