I drove down a street I’ve been on hundreds if not thousands of times when I noticed the bushes on the median in full bloom with purple flowers. Did they always have flowers? I didn’t know. I didn’t remember. Odd since I had been driving down this road since I received my learner’s permit. How had I never noticed the flowers?
The answer came on the way home when I noticed the green mountains. They were never green because California’s been in a severe or extreme drought for years. The mountains surrounding our valley had been brown for so long, it was amazing to see it green. And though I’m surrounded with a lot of evergreen trees and bushes, I never knew some of them flowered.
As I write this, there are people dealing with snow…in April. Some are calling is a second or third Winter, while wondering if Spring will ever come around or if they’ll skip right into Summer.
The unexpected is always unnerving. It makes us look up from the everyday grind. It makes us pay attention to the things around us. It makes us reflect, wonder, and sometimes panic.
What if it never comes? What if it never happens? What will we do? What will become of me?
I’m not just talking about Spring, but if you geek out over the weather, more kudos to you. There are things we expect out of life. I expected to be married and be a mom in my twenties. That didn’t happen. Maybe you expected the same thing. Maybe you expected to have a certain career, a job promotion, the success of a relationship, good health, or whatever. But they didn’t happen. Instead, something unexpected happened, or that expected thing not happening was the unexpected thing that happened.
You’re unnerved. You look up, pay attention, reflect, wonder, and panic. You find yourself in a second or third Winter. Will your Spring ever come around? Will you find yourself surrounded by blooming, fragrant, colorful flowers? Or will you skip right into the dead heat of Summer, missing out on all Spring has to offer?
Will you skip right into retirement, missing out on promotions and career advancements?
Will you skip right into the golden years, missing out on marriage and children?
Will you skip right into loss, missing out on growth?
I didn’t know those bushes flowered because they have been enduring a drought. Now, the drought is over. The rain is falling. The bushes are flowering because they can. They have always been able to flower. It has always been their nature to flower. But first, they had to endure the drought.
You have always been able to flower. It has always been in your nature to flower. To bloom. To flourish. To thrive. But you might have to first go through Winter or Summer or whatever season you’re in that feels like everything is cold or dead or cut-off. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. Don’t lose faith.
It’s easy to get used to plain ol’ bushes and brown mountains. To believe that the ways things are now “is as good as it’s gonna get.” While on one hand, that could become your self-fulfilling prophecy, on the other hand is a God who’s looking out for you.
“I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for” Jeremiah 29:11 (MSG)
You can settle for brown mountains of this life or live in perpetual Winter, or you can have faith in the God of awesome plans and hopeful futures. I’m here to remind you, though, that you have what it takes to endure through the harsh seasons. You have what it takes to believe by faith, and then bloom, flourish, and thrive in due time.
