Bloom Where You’re NOT Planted

Maybe it’s the newly-hatched summer, but in one week I heard the phrase “Bloom where you’re planted,” from 3 different people in 3 different contexts. Each was referring to not waiting for the perfect set of circumstances; the point is to do the best you can where you are in this moment. I remember thinking sometimes that’s easier said than done.

Earlier this spring I went out on the back porch and saw this:

Last fall these bulbs were sitting perilously close to the surface, in danger of becoming a mid-winter snack for the fat, scavenging squirrels that have the run of the neighborhood.

I lifted them from their precarious spot, and stuck them on the shelf, intending to bury them deeper in a more advantageous location. But as the weather turned and I stopped going out back, they sat forgotten.

Honestly, I thought they might disintigrate the way some lily bulbs did when I failed to plant them. But there they were, sprouting roots and tender shoots, despite the lack of soil or water.

And I wonder if that’s not the real meaning of that saying.

I’ve spent what feels like a long time without some of the things that nourish my soul. I know it’s temporary, and I look forward to the day that I am firmly planted in nutrient-rich circumstances.

But regardless, all that God has fed in me in the past, all that I’ve stored up from wells of deep teaching and nourishing fellowship isn’t gone. It’s been tucked away for times such as this.

Maybe you’re in one of these dry places too.

A place where circumstances suck the life, the joy–maybe even the hope–out of you. But be encouraged; He will not leave you to wither to dust. He’s given you what you need to ‘over-winter’ and you will again be planted where your roots can grow deep and your spirit bloom in the warmth of His love and care.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
(S)he will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8