Late Bloomer
Brenda Harris
I stood looking at the trellis and the plant growing on it. The late afternoon sun was shining strong and its bright pink blooms and vibrant green leaves were oddly obvious. Fall colors surrounded me everywhere except for what was growing on the trellis. As I stared at the unique plant, questions arose in my mind. Frost was forecasted again tonight and I wondered with criticism, “Why didn’t this plant bloom earlier in the year? It would have been better for it to bloom when rain fell softening the earth and heralding spring. Its pink colors would have been such a welcomed sight! Or better still, why didn’t it bloom in the summer when its beauty would have been better appreciated alongside other plants blooming at the same time, and the flowers could have lasted longer?”
Feeling satisfied with my observations and questions, I closed my eyes and let the sun soak into my skin. I decided to take a moment to enjoy the sunlight, much like the plant before me. Very soon these warm days would be gone, so I gave myself the rare treat of sitting still. However, my serenity was quickly disturbed. A soft buzzing sound forced me to open my eyes.
A slow-moving bumblebee flew past me and landed on the plant I had been disparaging moments earlier. As I watched the little insect bop from flower to flower, I imagined the bee was likely quite happy to find flowers blooming during this time of the year when many others were not. When the bee moved on, so did my thoughts, and as is typical for me, they turned spiritual. What did God want me to take away from what I had just witnessed? Was life mimicking nature? In the stillness, I sensed, indeed it was.
The term late bloomer typically holds a negative connotation and indicates there is a delay or an atypical development has occurred. But if we believe all things occur in God’s perfect timing, is there ever a situation that is late in blooming? If we trust all things truly work together for good, then even things that appear to be late to us, are not late to God but rather perfectly timed.
I find it difficult at times, to embrace this truth, particularly when it plays out in the lives of the people I love. I wait longingly for things to fall into place and when they don’t go according to my timetable or expectations, critical questions often come to mind and I question God’s timing.
Do you have a “late blooming” situation? Are you waiting on God to divinely orchestrate something? Perhaps you are waiting for Him to unfold beauty in a circumstance which is not yet in bloom?
What if you and I chose to trust God while waiting? What if we considered the timing to be absolutely perfect and will be beneficial to someone else when it does unfold, like the plant was for the bumble bee in early November? Maybe if we did this, we could release our expectations over to God who alone knows the beginning from the end?
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecc. 3:11
Brenda’s garden trellis (below)
