Bloom

a devotional for spring

Photo by Luke van Zyl on Unsplash

Thank you for joining us! Before we begin our devotional, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight from last week:

Alex wrote in the comments of our devotional “Peace in the Depths”:

“Meditating on the overlap of Heaven on Earth is as mind blowing of an exercise of the mind and heart as a contemplation of the Trinity. And the thought and future reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth is too much for this tiny Scottish brain. Enoch walked with God then he was no more. Elijah went…somewhere…in a chariot of fire (God could have given him a cloud or a Ferrari but NO…a chariot of freaking fire!!!). Jesus was with Moses and Elijah in an otherworldly form like the Jedi at the end of Episode VI. Those overlaps! It’s like God knows we can’t handle it all yet so He just does magic at times to give us insight.”

Thank you, Alex, for this beautiful word-picture of God’s wonders!

If you want to be featured in next week’s Comment Highlight, all you have to do is post a comment on any of this week’s posts or threads. That’s it!

Now, on with this week’s devotional…

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in the center of the woods
where no human hand planted her
a certain tree grows;

and every year
on a certain morning
she decides
(in her own silent way)

it's time

bursting forth in white blossom,
a veiled bride--
the brazen wildling bees
her willing attendants;

and I ask myself, 
who does she bloom for,
this hidden tree
that no one sees?

I pass by

and her God-groom 
waits below
to be carpeted
in falling petals. 

You see it emblazoned on mugs, T-shirts, pots for houseplants, and signs for walls: Bloom where you’re planted!

It’s the sort of vaguely reductive, gently cliche, yet uplifting message that suits anyone, because everyone understands how it feels to yearn for different soil, for different circumstances. And everyone can benefit from the idea that no matter where you are, you should be there. Fully. Immerse yourself, find nourishment in that place, and grow.

But it isn’t a perfect message, is it?

Bloom where you’re planted! Even in the midst of the disease you didn’t plan for, the hardship you worked so long to avoid, the fear of financial ruin, the loneliness of misunderstanding, or the weight of national and global pain? Bloom there? Bloom then? How? Why?

Some soil is not designed to support thriving. Some soil is actively hostile to growth. And the only way to bloom in hostile soil is to be rooted in something stronger, nourished by the common beauty of the world around you and the daily graces that reveal God’s face. It’s the only way. Because what is the point of blooming? To be successful? To be beautiful?

Not to be pedantic, but I will: in the plant world, the point of blooming is typically to attract pollinators. Similarly, the point of us “blooming” under any circumstance is to be life-giving to others, to be living proof of the nourishment of God in all hardships. Our vibrant colors are our testimony, and even our ragged leaves and less-desirable parts—worn down by difficulty as we may be—are part of our beauty, and part of our story.

Bloom where you’re planted! Yes, but do so knowing that your roots have dug deeper than you could ever imagine grabbing handfuls of God’s mercy, and that mercy never, ever runs dry.

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