give it time – bloom time

The blue hydrangeas,
They grew and grew and grew
Spilling across doorways and sidewalks paths –

They were ready
For a journey
And so we transplanted them around the corner,
Under the kitchen table
window. The blue hydrangeas sulked
In the newness
Wouldn’t show themselves for more seasons
than seemed
seemly.

We hoped in things we didn’t see
Watered with faith for roots
planted true

“Give it time,” my husband spoke
Beside me

“4 more weeks,” suggested the nursery man
Before it was time to give up

Until one day, just before reaching for the shovel
Just before giving up
a chopped chive-size
piece of green
stuck on what seemed
a dead stick

The piece of green grew slow
Was joined by more pieces
Of green
Until it a few seasons later,
It stretched stalks of green
Just growing
Growing
Not ready
not ready yet to bloom
Until just the right
season
When roots reach deep and the stalks
Multiplied
reach high
Little clusterbuds of no color
One day
Open blue
blooms

You know, if we’d left that hydrangea bush by the garage door, it would have been limited, unable to reach its full potential. By transplanting it, giving it more room to grow and become, it will be more than it ever could have before. It’s been a tough transplant/journey for my hydrangea – but I live in faith of something I don’t see – that it will grow bigger, bloom more, have a greater impact – kind of like God’s plan for me and mine!

More on blooming where you’re planted:

Ordinary Dreams of an Every Man

The Year of Living Shalom

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The Winter of a Prayer Journey

Purple Iris and tangerine and lemon-colored lily bulbs burrow, roots reaching down for warmth in my Tennessee red-clay garden. The once rioutous pink, blue, purple and yellow flowers have retreated to their roots, and butterfly lures are just clacking sticks in the wind.

Winter is a faith-is-the-substance-of-things-hoped-for,-the evidence-of-things-not-seen” kind of season.

The deceiver tries to hood-wink stray thoughts into believing it’s a dead time, a separated-from-God time.

Winter from 753-717 B.C. was nameless – no January and February – just gaping, no-name nothingness (50 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World, Sprezzatura). I don’t know about you, but it tests my resolve, my confidence – when I cannot put a name to something – like the knocking sounds in the basement or when one son’s stomach hurt for 5 years, or when we didn’t know if our only child would turn into an older brother.

Not knowing is hard.

Not knowing is a winter-time season of a prayer sent out, like a nameless January and February.

Each Winter asks us to wait.

Each Winter demands faith.

Paperwhite bulbs on the sill remind me to have faith.

Snow falling is a faith dance from heaven to where I am, reminding me He hasn’t forgotten me in the winter of a prayer journey – where things are happening that I just don’t see.

But He does. He sees. And prayer returning will burst forth into riotous blooms – maybe not quite what I thought I was planting, but more wonderful than I imagined.

Something powerful is going on in this seeming nothingness of long nights, cold paths that don’t invite long walks, air that tingles against cheeks as if saying – “Go back in. We’re not ready for you, yet.”

Winters are for discipline or grace or extravagant love – and the emerging spring of a prayer answered is more beautiful because of it!

“He orders the snow, ‘Blanket the earth!’
    and the rain, ‘Soak the whole countryside!’
No one can escape the weather—it’s there.
    And no one can escape from God.
Wild animals take shelter,
    crawling into their dens,
When blizzards roar out of the north
    and freezing rain crusts the land.
It’s God’s breath that forms the ice,
    it’s God’s breath that turns lakes and rivers solid.
And yes, it’s God who fills clouds with rainwater
    and hurls lightning from them every which way.
He puts them through their paces—first this way, then that—
    commands them to do what he says all over the world.
Whether for discipline or grace or extravagant love,
    he makes sure they make their mark” (Job 37: 6-13)

 

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Believing Impossible Things

I imagine the turtle that my son picked up was scared, frustrated and feeling helpless. Journey interrupted – private space invaded. If he could talk maybe he would have said, “Mom, he’s touching my shell.” If he could think, was he tallying just how far out of his planned journey this exhibition would place him? Half way across the street – halfway there – and now this.

I don’t think he trusted us. I rather imagine he had no faith in our intentions, as he was held there mid-air, legs dangling out of his shell. He had no concept of believing impossible things. Just instinctive fear.

I am so glad that unlike the turtle God filled us with the ability to believe – to believe in impossible things.

By John Tenniel

“There’s no use trying,” she said: “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day.  Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

– Lewis Carroll, Through a Looking Glass

 What are 6 things you need to believe?

Impossible Things

Can you believe it for 30 minutes today?

Thank God for doing the impossible?

“I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me”
(Philippians 4:13)

Do you need to practice?

I do!

Today, before breakfast

I am going to believe

6 impossible things are not impossible

because through Him, all things are possible

^“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”
(Matt. 19:26)

All things are possible –

1. I thank God believing that He provides even in a failing economy.
2. I believe in the dreams He has put on my husband’s heart, I believe in the brick-by-brick building of that dream.
3. I believe, not in past behavior patterns of a son becoming a man – I believe in God’s faithfulness and love to pursue each person He created, just as the Shepherd pursues each lost lamb.
4. I believe that the son who does not like to keep calendars of due dates for school projects will become organized and through organization become responsible for his grades.
5. I believe that I will have abundant energy to respond with grace to each son today.
6. I believe that my day will be punctuated with joy, laughter and blessing – both given and received.
7. I believe that one day I will understand how God wants me to fill my days, use my gifts and fulfill His plan for my life – and through that understanding have peace about myself.

 As I walk through each day, I will believe, though I don’t see, walking, holding tightly to a faith that is “the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

And, while I am walking seeing the unseen, I will whisper the words Jesus whispered to Jarius who’s daughter, though dead, through Jesus believed she could yet live again:

 “Don’t be afraid; just believe” (Mark 5:36)

 

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