Originally published Monday, 14 October 2013.
Earlier this year, I decided I wanted to try growing some plants. Keep in mind I’ve never had much of a green thumb or any interest in developing one. However, this year was different. After visiting the local nursery and picking out a couple different varieties, I set out on my adventure to become a gardener.
For a few days, I was vigilant about watering the plants and making sure they got the proper sunlight but after a while when it appeared I wasn’t going to get the results I wanted, I grew tired and threw in the towel. The plants were barely blossoming and the few petals that had appeared were beginning to wilt and die. I was disappointed and frustrated.
Why did it have to be so hard to grow some flowers? Why did it have to take so much time? Why did it have to be such a struggle?
I quickly forget that growing anything isn’t easy. Growing requires hard work, time, tears, determination and a trust that even on those days when you can’t see anything happening, there are changes being made in unseen places much like when God is growing and shaping us in difficult seasons.
Difficult seasons … you know the kind. The times in life where you can’t see God’s plan at all, when nothing makes sense, when the pain is so raw that every day is a battle and quite honestly, you just want to give up.But we can’t. Not like I did with those flowers.
We can’t give up because God has promised us that when we are in Him, every ending means there’s a new beginning on its way. Every season of sorrow will be followed by a harvest of joy.
“Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.” –Psalm 126:5 (NIV)
But God won’t have that harvest blossom overnight … He’ll do it in His time. So, we must continue to sow the seeds of reading His Word, praying to Him, and trusting that He is doing a mighty work even when we can’t see it with our human eyes.
Before a flower blooms, there is so much activity taking place underneath the soil and while we can’t see what God is doing through our seasons of confusion and sorrow, we have to trust that He is working out a new beginning that is more than we can imagine.
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us …” –Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)
How beautiful that joy will be when it appears.
God is working a miracle in you during your trials. Believe in His promises, cry out to Him and cling to His truths.
Who knows … maybe if I would have put a little more effort into growing those plants, they might be in full-bloom today. We can’t forget to sow the seed or else we’ll miss out on a bountiful season of joy that God has prepared for us.
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